Natural Anticoagulants and Heritable Thrombophilia

There is medical condition, called thrombophilia, in which the human body has increased tendency to form blood clots or the body is unable to break down clots. Thrombophilia, may be Hereditary or acquired.Deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism are major manifestations of VTE due to heritable causes, whereas,arterial thrombosis mainly presents with myocardial infarction(MI) and stroke CVA),together they are most common causes of death in developed countries (Wienke A, et al,2005).The heritable abnormalities leading to increased risk ofthrombosis, venous or arterial, can be categorized into two major groups i.e reduction in the anticoagulant function i.e. deficiency of natural anticoagulants (protein C, protein S and antithrombin) and those resulting from increased procoagulant activity i.e. factor Vleiden and prothrombin G20210A polymorphism (Hoffbrand AV,et al,2005).Recent studies conducted in U.S.A and Europe, have suggested increased association of natural anticoagulant deficiency with arterial thrombosis leading to IHD and stroke (Wienke A, et al,2005).