Importance of Family History as a Risk Factor for Venous Thromboembolism

Abstract

Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is a multifactorial disease with many known genetic and acquired risk factors.1 A positive family history is an independent risk factor for VTE that may reflect the presence of a hereditary thrombophilic disorder. However, the predictive value of a positive family history for detection of known heritable causes of VTE is low,2,3 suggesting that there are as-yet undiscovered genetic or environmental risk factors that account for the familial clustering of this disorder. Article see p 1012 In the current edition of Circulation , Zoller and colleagues4 present the results of their database linkage study that explored the role of family history as a risk factor for VTE. Using unique individual national identifiers to link data from the national Swedish Multigenerational Registry (a family data set that links second-generation Swedes born since 1932 with their siblings) with information from the Swedish Hospital Discharge Register (which contains complete data on all hospital discharge diagnoses since 1986), they identified 45 362 patients hospitalized for deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolism, thrombophlebitis (including superficial phlebitis), or thrombosis in unusual sites over a 21-year period. On the basis of results from other population-based epidemiological studies, the reported …