The New England Journal of Medicine
e-mail icon  FREE NEJM E-TOC    HOME   |   SUBSCRIBE   |   CURRENT ISSUE   |   PAST ISSUES   |   COLLECTIONS   |    Advanced Search
Sign in | Get NEJM's E-Mail Table of Contents — Free | Subscribe
 
Original Article
Volume 330:517-522 February 24, 1994 Number 8
NextNext

Resistance to Activated Protein C as a Basis for Venous Thrombosis
Peter J. Svensson, and Bjorn Dahlback

 Sign up for free e-toc
 

This Article
-Full Text

Commentary
-Letters

Tools and Services
-Add to Personal Archive
-Add to Citation Manager
-Notify a Friend
-E-mail When Cited

More Information
-PubMed Citation
ABSTRACT

Background In three families with various forms of venous thrombosis, we observed an apparently inherited poor response to the anticoagulant activated protein C (APC). The condition was due to a deficiency in a previously unrecognized anticoagulant factor that functioned as a cofactor to activated protein C.

Methods We conducted the present study to determine the prevalence of resistance to APC in patients with venous thrombosis. We compared 104 consecutive patients with venous thrombosis confirmed by objective tests with 130 controls. In addition, 211 members of 34 families of persons with resistance to APC were studied. The anticoagulant response to APC was measured with a modified version of the activated partial-thromboplastin time test; the results were expressed as APC ratios.

Results Forty-five percent of patients had a family history of thrombosis. A significant (P<0.001) difference in APC ratios was observed between the controls and the patients with thrombosis. For 33 percent of patients, the APC ratio was below the 5th percentile of the control values, although the results of the family studies suggested that the prevalence of APC resistance may be even higher (approximately 40 percent) in the patients with thrombosis. The inherited nature of the defect was confirmed in a majority of cases, and the family studies suggested the mode of inheritance to be autosomal dominant. The thrombosis-free survival of APC-resistant family members was significantly less than that of non-APC-resistant family members.

Conclusions There was a high prevalence of APC resistance among young persons with a history of venous thrombosis, and this resistance appeared to be inherited as an autosomal dominant trait.


Source Information

From the Department for Coagulation Disorders (P.J.S., B.D.), the Department of Medicine (P.J.S.), and the Department of Clinical Chemistry (B.D.), University of Lund, Malmo General Hospital, Malmo, Sweden. Presented in part at the 14th Congress of the International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis, New York, July 4-9, 1993.

Address reprint requests to Professor Dahlback at the Department of Clinical Chemistry, Malmo General Hospital, S-214 01 Malmo, Sweden.

Full Text of this Article


Related Letters:

Resistance to Activated Protein C
Laurence W. R., Hampton K.K., Preston F.E., Greaves M., Dahlback B.
Extract | Full Text  
N Engl J Med 1994; 331:129-130, Jul 14, 1994. Correspondence

This article has been cited by other articles:



HOME  |  SUBSCRIBE  |  SEARCH  |  CURRENT ISSUE  |  PAST ISSUES  |  COLLECTIONS  |  PRIVACY  |  HELP  |  beta.nejm.org

Comments and questions? Please contact us.

The New England Journal of Medicine is owned, published, and copyrighted © 2008 Massachusetts Medical Society. All rights reserved.