Why is Factor V Leiden an emerging public health issue?
Factor V Leiden (FV) is the most common risk factor identified for thrombosis in the United States. Thrombosis is the formation of blood clots within a blood vessel. Blood clots cut off or limit the supply of blood to tissues. In the United States, half a million people are hospitalized each year and 50-100 thousand deaths occur due to venous thrombosis. Therefore, the efforts to improve the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of thrombotic events are well justified. FV is an important women s health issue as pregnancy, oral contraceptive use and estrogen replacement therapy are all risk factors for thrombosis. Thrombosis is also a leading cause of maternal death. Sixty percent of women who develop thrombosis during pregnancy or the postpartum period have the FV gene change. The FV gene change is present in approximately 2-7% of the Caucasian population. FV accounts for 20-40% of cases of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and up to 75% of cases of recurrent thrombosis. Testing for FV is of s
