Proteomic analysis of venous thromboembolism

Venous thrombosis has a multicausal basis, and is characterized by a multifaceted combination of inherent phenotypic complexity and genetic predisposition, with acquired and triggering factors further and acutely influencing the likelihood of an individual experiencing a clinically significant thrombotic event. Traditional coagulation tests, especially clot-based assays, are useful for describing major abnormalities in the hemostatic response, but fail in their application to assessing thrombotic risk in the healthy population. Recent evidence also attests that the analysis of a vast array of genes can only explain part of the individual thrombotic risk. Thus, proteomic analysis may hold promise for characterizing or understanding biological pathways and pathophysiological interactions, for improving the diagnosis and identifying novel therapeutic approaches to this prevalent and life-threatening disorder. Herein, we present and discuss available data on proteomic analysis of venous thromboembolism, concluding that further studies supported by high-throughput techniques should be undertaken to elucidate or understand biological pathways and pathophysiological interactions.