<h3>Background</h3> Factor V Leiden (FVL) is an inherited autosomal dominant condition that is identified in 20%-50% of patients with venous thromboembolic diseases and 5-8% of the population in Canada. People with FVL are often called hypercoagulable, and have a five-fold increase in the risk of venous thrombosis. There is a low prevalence of FVL among patients with fatal pulmonary embolism (PE) and a higher incidence of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) than PE in patients with FVL. This has been referred to as the FVL paradox in thrombosis. We wished to test whether FVL and normal patients are at the same risk of initial thrombus formation, expect FVL patients present with symptomatic DVT while normal patients do not present, because the small asymptomatic DVT in normal patients embolizes to become an asymptomatic PE. <h3>Aim</h3> Therefore, to explain why patients with FVL are more likely to present with a DVT rather than a PE we will study DVT stability in FVL mice using a modification of our previously published mouse model of venous thrombus stability. <h3>Methods</h3> Platelets were fluorescently labeled using CD41 fab fragments conjugated to an Alexa Fluor 488. DVT was induced using a ferric chloride saturated filter paper on the femoral vein of female mice. We chose conditions such that only a small thrombus developed in wild type (WT) mice, and then compared them to thrombi in FVL heterozygous (F5L/+) and FVL homozygous (F5L/L) mice. Intravital videomicroscopy recorded embolic events leaving the thrombus and the thrombus sizes every 10 minutes for 2 hours. Lungs were harvested sectioned and stained for presence of PE. <h3>Results</h3> Although thrombus size remained small in WT mice, it significantly increased over time in F5L/+ and F5L/L mice. The number of total and large embolic events, and the percent of thrombus that embolized was significantly decreased in F5L/+ and F5L/L mice compared to WT mice. Previously we have correlated increased large embolic events with increased PE burden. FVL mice had significantly reduced PE burden compared to WT mice. Mice with F5L had higher F1.2 levels than in WT, consistent with increased thrombin generation. <h3>Conclusion</h3> This suggests that in noncarriers (reflected by WT), a minor insult initially resulting in a small DVT tends to remain small and asymptomatic, due to the embolization. Alternatively, the same insult in people with FVL (reflected by F5L/L) leads to thrombus growth due to less embolization and thus development of symptomatic DVT, but no PE.