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Factors That V Leiden Thrombophilia

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Factor V Leiden Thrombophilia Thrombophilia is a disorder that contains several genetic components that can cause an individual to form arterial and venous thrombi more readily. Many serious medical complications can result from thrombus formations that are often times fatal. In fact, a venous thromboembolism (VTE) is relatively common and a thrombosis of the deep veins of the legs or pelvis can lead to morbidity and mortality. Small portions of this patient population even develop pulmonary emboli (PE), which can be fatal. This major medical problem affects 1 in 1,000 persons per year and approximately 1 in 130 Americans younger than age 65 develop a VTE (Crow, 2003; Kujovich, 2011). Interestingly enough, inherited thrombophilia can be identified in half of the patients presenting with VTE (Kujovich, 2011). In 1993, European investigators Dahlback and his colleagues recognized a new mechanism for familial thrombophilia. Their research was initiated in order to investigate the cause for a number of young adults that presented with VTE, who had a family history of thrombosis but no detectable genetic link. As a result, a previously unrecognized mechanism associated with activated protein C resistance (APCR) was found – Factor V Leiden mutation (Crow, 2003). Factor V Leiden is considered the single most common cause of hereditary thrombophilia and is often linked to thrombosis due to hereditary hypercoagulability. Studies have indicated that factor V Leiden is a
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