Recent Advances in Thrombosis and Hemostasis – Part I

The burden of thrombotic diseases is heavy on the world population. It is widely known that coronary artery disease is a major cause of death but many laymen do not know that the mortality is mediated by thrombosis on a ruptured plaque. It is also less well-known that stroke is commonly the result of a thrombus that might have embolized from the heart or the carotid artery or was sometimes generated in situ. Together, ischemic heart disease and stroke account for 25% of the deaths worldwide.[1] Still, deaths related to venous thromboembolism are often hidden in the statistics. With the drastically decreasing rate of autopsies performed, an increasing number of cases with fatal pulmonary embolism are misclassified. For the survivors of venous thromboembolism there is a high risk of long-term sequelae, mainly as postthrombotic syndrome and, for a smaller proportion of those with pulmonary embolism, the development of chronic pulmonary hypertension is a feared complication. Furthermore, approximately 50% of those with unprovoked venous thromboembolism will have one or several recurrent events during their remaining life with or without hospitalizations and with accumulating risk of sequelae. Venous thromboembolism is therefore associated with significant morbidity and mortality.