Genetic risk factors for venous thromboembolism

Abstract

Introduction: Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is a complex disease that aggregates in families. Both acquired and genetic risk factors are important. Proper recognition and management of high-risk individuals are important.

Areas covered: The genetic risk factors for VTE, the clinical consequences, and future perspectives are summarized. Classical thrombophilia i.e., factor V Leiden (rs6025), the prothrombin G20210A mutation (rs1799963), deficiencies of antithrombin, protein C, and protein S and the recent findings from genome wide association studies (GWAS), transcriptome-wide association studies (TWAS), genetic risk score (GRS), VTE candidate genes, expression studies, animal studies, studies using next generation sequencing, pathway analysis, and clinical implications are discussed.

Expert opinion: Screening of inherited thrombophilia should be performed in special cases. Identification of strong risk variants might affect the management. The increasing number of genetic risk variants is likely to change management of VTE.

Keywords: Venous thromboembolism; antithrombin deficiency; deep vein thrombosis; genetics; genome-wide association study; molecular epidemiology; protein C deficiency; protein S deficiency; pulmonary embolism; thrombophilia.