PMID: 9184386May 1, 1997Paper

High prevalence of elevated factor VIII levels in patients referred for thrombophilia screening: role of increased synthesis and relationship to the acute phase reaction

Thrombosis and Haemostasis
J O'DonnellM Laffan

Abstract

A recent report from the Leiden Thrombophilia Survey identified high factor VIII activity levels as an independent risk factor for venous thromboembolism in a population survey. As the study measure for factor VIII was a one-stage coagulation assay, and since markers for the acute phase reaction were not assessed, it remained uncertain whether the increase was due to a constitutional increased rate of synthesis, to circulating activated factor VIII, or to an acute phase response. We added factor VIII activity assay (FVIII:C), factor VIII antigen (FVIII:Ag), vWF antigen (vWF:Ag), ABO blood group, fibrinogen and C-reactive protein to our routine thrombophilia screen of patients referred because of unexplained thromboembolism. Elevated FVIII:C (> 1.5 iu/ml) emerged as the single commonest abnormality detected in 25.4% of a group of 260 such patients. FVIII:C and FVIII:Ag were highly correlated (p = 0.003), showing that this represented a true increase in FVIII. In 4 of 46 patients this was clearly attributable to an acute phase reaction. Eleven others showed minor elevation of ESR and one of CRP. Neither FVIII:C or FVIII:Ag showed significant correlation with fibrinogen, ESR or C-reactive protein by non parametric analysis. Althou...Continue Reading

Related Concepts

Related Feeds

Blood Clotting Disorders

Thrombophilia includes conditions with increased tendency for excessive blood clotting. Blood clotting occurs when the body has insufficient amounts of specialized proteins that make blood clot and stop bleeding. Here is the latest research on blood clotting disorders.