Zusammenfassung der Ressource
Thrombophilia
(hypercoagulability)
- Introduction
- What is thrombophilia?
- Its a tendency for an
individual's blood to
inappropriately form
thrombi (clots that occlude
blood vessels) or coagulate
in the wrong place + time
- Thrombotic disorders
- Arterial
- Myocardial infarction
- Stroke
- Peripheral arterial disease
- Venous
- DVT
- Pulmonary
embolism
(PE)
- Risk factor =
oral
contraceptives
- Vary in size: can be small PE's
all the way up to massive PE's
- Symptoms vary with size (from mild cough with small
PE's and pain, haemoptysis (coughing blood) and
dyspnoea, fainting, sudden death with massive PEs)
- Thrombosis = closure of a
vessel by a thrombus (clot)
- Thromboses can fragment or detach
and travel in the blood to a second site
- This travelling form is called an
embolus (can also block a tissue
vessel -> causes infarction)
- Infarction = mass cell death due to the
occlusion of a supplying blood vessel
- Types of thrombus
- Red
- Mainly RBCs in fibrin mesh
- White
- Mainly platelets in fibrin mesh
- Thrombophilia can be acquired or inherited
- Factors
affecting
thrombosis
- Prothrombotic
- Vascular damage
- Platelet activation
- Activation of the coagulation cascade
- Antithrombotic
- Normal blood flow
- Anicoagulants
- Fibrinolytic system
- Normal endothelium
- Virchow's triad
- The pathophysiology of
thrombosis involves...
- Changes in the vessel wall
- Deformities can cause turbulence (see
below) and damage exposes ECM
- Changes in the blood flow
- Stasis promotes contact
between platelets and activated
procoagulants and the vessel wall
- Turbulent blood flow results in damage
to the endothelium - exposes ECM
- Thromboses can occur around
venous valves (+++turbulence)
- Changes in the
coagulability of the blood
- Deficiences of the natural anticoagulants;
Protein C, Protein S, antithrombin(III)
- Acquisition of anti-coagulation
factors; Lupus anticoagulant (LA)
- Important to keep this in
mind with thrombosis!
- Pathaphysiology of thrombosis
- Blood vessel injury
(endothelial damage)
- Activation of blood coagulation
(coagulation cascade)
- Thrombin
- Fibrin
- +
- Hypercoagulability of blood
- Platelet activation by
subendothelial collagen
- Platelet factor 3
- +
- Thromboxane A2 (TxA2)
- Thromboxane causes
vasoconstriction
- Platelet activation
and aggregation
- Platelet and fibrin mass
(thrombus)
- ADP
- +
- Stasis / turbulence
of bloodflow
- +
- Causes
(acquired vs.
hereditary)
- Hereditary
- Antithrombin(III)
deficiency
- Prothrombin gene mutation
- Protein C/S deficiency
- Elevated factors; XI, VIII
- Dysfibriginogenemia
- Tissue plasminogen activator
inhibitor (t-PAI) defects
- Factor V Leiden (activated Protein C resistence)
- Sticky platelet syndrome
- Homocystinemia
- Antiphospholipid Ab'
- Antiphospholipid syndrome
(primary disease; or secondary to lupus)
- Risk of thrombosis -
especially PE or DVT
- Also causes multiple miscarriages
- Acquired
(risk factors)
- Prolonged immobilisation (e.g.
in hospitals or on long flights)
- Chronic inflammatory disease
- Oral contraceptives
- Oestrogens
- Nephrotic syndrome
- Pregnancy
- Trauma /
general surgery
- Allows exposure of
blood to tissue factor
- CVD
- Valve
disease
- Natural
anticoagulants
- Antithrombin(III)
- Activated by heparin and heparin-like
molecules (e.g. heperan-sulfate)
- Function: inactivates thrombin (fIIa), fIXa, fXa and fXIa
- Protein C
- Function: decreases the generation of thrombin
(fIIa) by inactivating; fVa, fVIIIa and fXa
- Vit. K dependent, requires endothelial
thrombomodulin and activation by protein S
- Deficicency: in about 4-12% of patients with thrombotic disease
- Can be heterozygous condition (mild)
- Can be homozygous; presents early
- Other conditions; Protein S deficiency, mutated fV
(Factor V leiden) and thrombomodulin mutation
- Factor V Leiden = activated protein C resistence
- Results in increased thrombin formation
- Protein S
- Function: Activates Protein C
- Vit. K dependent
- All produced in the liver
- Hypercoagulable
- First rule out all other risk factors
(surgery, pregnancy, obesity etc.)
- To label someone as hypercoagulable
they must fit a criteria
- First thrombosis <40yrs
- Recurrent thrombosis
- Family history
- Thrombosis in unusual sites (cerebral
veins, hepatic veins, renal veins,
mesenteric veins, inferior vena cava
- Plus positive lab results for any of
the mentioned inherited conditions
- Virchow's triad:
Venous vs. arterial
thrombosis
- Venous
- 1) Vessel walls = normal
- 2) Blood flow = stasis:
low-grade activaion of clotting
factors and platelets -> red clots
- 3) Abnormalities of blood composition
- Normal vessel wall; flow
and shear are low; clot =
RBC-rich (red clot)
- Risk factors =
trauma/surgery
and cancer
- Treatment =
anticoagulants
- Arterial
- 1) Vessel walls = atherosclerosis ->
plaque ruptures -> exposes tissue
factor -> clotting cascade -> white clot
- 2) Blood flow = turbulence (high shear)
- 3) Abnormalities of blood composition
- Sites of plaque formation; high
turbulence and shear rates; clot
= platelet rich (white clot)
- Risk fators =
smoking, high BP
and cholesterol
- Treatment =
antiplatelet agents
- Screens for
thrombophilic
patients
- Screen for activated protein C
resistence by clotting assay
- activated partial thromboplastin time (aPTT)
- Intrinsic pathway-based assay - coagulation
activated by contact activator of XII
- Genetic test for prothrombin mutation
- Immunological assay for
free and total protein S
- Measurement of fasting total
plasma homocysteine
- ELISA assay