[Molecular abnormalities in recurrent thromboembolic disease]

The diagnosis and treatment of apparently idiopathic recurrent thromboembolic disease (RTED) still raise difficult problems. However, recent data suggest that abnormalities of coagulation and fibrinolysis factors are important. Hereditary antithrombin III (AT III) deficiency or abnormal AT III, and hereditary protein C deficiency with autosomal dominant transmission have been associated with severe familiar RTED. More recently, we described a dysfibrinogenemia characterized by abnormal fibrin polymerization and abnormal plasminogen binding to the fibrin clot, responsible for familial RTED. Disorders of fibrinolytic activity in RTED are represented, in 70% of the cases, by reduced release or lack of production by endothelial cells of a vascular plasminogen activator. Hereditary plasminogen deficiency or abnormal plasminogen, although rare, are regularly responsible for RTED.