The aim of the present study was to determine the existence or prevalence of thrombophilic markers such as Factor V Leiden, prothrombin G20210A, protein S, protein C, activated protein C and anti-thrombin in pre-eclampsia and pregnancy-induced hypertensive patients.
OBJECTIVES: The objectives of this study were to investigate the prevalence of factor V Leiden mutation in Malay women with recurrent spontaneous abortion and to clarify the contribution of the factor V Leiden mutation to recurrent miscarriages in these women.
DESIGN: A prospective case control study between June 1999 and April 2000.
SETTING: Hospital University Science of Malaysia, Kubang Kerian, Kelantan, and Maternal and Child Health Clinic, Pasir Mas, Kelantan, Malaysia.
SAMPLES: A total of 46 Malay women with a history of three or more first or second trimester miscarriages were studied. The control group consisted of 46 parous women without obstetric complications.
METHODS: Diagnosis of factor V Leiden mutation was made by examination of factor V Leiden allele product following Mnl I digestion of factor V Leiden alleles amplified by polymerase chain reaction.
RESULTS: None of the 46 women with recurrent spontaneous abortion carried the mutation. Also, we found no subject carrying the factor V Leiden alleles in the control group.
CONCLUSION: These results suggest that that there is no association between the factor V Leiden mutation and recurrent spontaneous abortion in the Malay population.
Resistance to activated protein C (APC-R) is the commonest inherited cause of thrombosis among Caucasians. Few studies have been carried out on its prevalence in Asians. We conducted a prospective study on 60 patients with thromboembolism to determine its prevalence in our local population. The Factor V Leiden (VaQ506) mutation associated with this condition was detected by amplification of the Factor V gene by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and digestion of the fragment with Mnl I. Three patients were found to be heterozygous for this mutation. None of the 3 patients had other concomitant hypercoagulable states. In addition, we studied the prevalence of this condition in Malays which was found to be 0.5%. Our study suggests that the incidence of APC-R is much lower here compared to the West.