The appropriateness of aspirin prophylaxis to prevent the occurrence of thrombosis in asymptomatic patients with confirmed positivity of antiphospholipid antibodies (aPL) has been recently debated. On the one side, Meroni and his group [1] support the reasons in favor of aspirin administration, particularly to patients considered at high risk of thrombosis. These patients are identified as thos...

BACKGROUND The development of vascular disease involves the interaction of genetic and environmental factors. Because vascular disease is a major contributor to mortality in Western societies, we hypothesized that deleterious polymorphisms associated with hemostasis decrease in frequency among a healthy population as a function of age. METHODS The frequencies of factor V G1691A Leiden (FVL), ...

BACKGROUND Our previously developed assay for detection of the factor V Leiden mutation (G1691A) based on a nucleic acid photo-cross-linking technology used two allele-specific capture probes and six fluorescein-modified signal-generating reporter probes. We wished to improve the sensitivity and performance of the method. METHODS We developed new reporter probes with approximately 10-fold mor...

It has long been thought that an individual thrombotic tendency increases the risk of myocardial infarction, especially in young adults. Several ‘‘prothrombotic’’ genetic factors that may influence the individual thrombotic risk have been identified. To investigate the association between the risk of myocardial infarction at a young age and genetic factors thought to be associated with an incre...

Several recent studies evaluated a possible effect of the prothrombotic polymorphisms such as 5,10 methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) nt 677C --> T, factor V (F V) nt 1691G --> A (F V Leiden), and factor II (F II) nt 20210 G --> A on the risk of myocardial infarction. In the present study, we analyzed the effect of these prothrombotic polymorphisms, as well as apolipoprotein (Apo) E4, ...

BACKGROUND Isothermal amplification methods provide alternatives to PCR that may be preferable for some nucleic acid target detection tasks. Among current isothermal target detection methods, ramified rolling circle amplification (RAM) of single-stranded DNA circles that are formed by ligation of linear DNA probes (C-probes or padlock probes) offers a unique target detection system by linked pr...

An association between fetal loss and thrombophilia has recently been described but has not been yet fully elucidated. We have evaluated prospectively the prevalence of the three common thrombophilic polymorphisms (TP) factor V G1691A (Leiden), thermolabile-methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (TL-MTHFR) C677T and factor II G20210A mutations, in 76 women with fetal loss (> or =3 in first, > or =...