Factor V Leiden and the risk of stillbirth in a German population

Henry Völzke; Rita Grimm; Daniel M. Robinson; Constanze Robinson; Thomas Kohlmann; Gudrun Schuster; Dietrich Alte; Falko H. Herrmann; Ulrich John

doi:10.1160/TH03-02-0117

Thrombosis and Haemostasis, Table of Contents

Thromb Haemost 2003; 90(03): 429-433
DOI: 10.1160/TH03-02-0117

Blood Coagulation, Fibrinolysis and Cellular Haemostasis

Schattauer GmbH

Factor V Leiden and the risk of stillbirth in a German population

Henry Völzke

¹Institute of Epidemiology and Social Medicine, Ernst Moritz Arndt University Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany

,

Rita Grimm

²Institute of Human Genetics, Ernst Moritz Arndt University Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany

³Institute of Physiology, Ernst Moritz Arndt University Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany

,

Daniel M. Robinson

⁴Clinic of Medicine, Ernst Moritz Arndt University Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany

,

Constanze Robinson

⁵Clinic of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Stralsund, Germany

,

Thomas Kohlmann

⁶Institute for Community Medicine, Ernst Moritz Arndt University Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany

,

Gudrun Schuster

²Institute of Human Genetics, Ernst Moritz Arndt University Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany

,

Dietrich Alte

¹Institute of Epidemiology and Social Medicine, Ernst Moritz Arndt University Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany

,

Falko H. Herrmann

²Institute of Human Genetics, Ernst Moritz Arndt University Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany

,

Ulrich John

¹Institute of Epidemiology and Social Medicine, Ernst Moritz Arndt University Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany

› Author Affiliations

Abstract

Summary

An association between the factor V Leiden variant and an increased risk of pregnancy loss has been reported. Most previous studies were performed with clinically recruited patients and controls. This approach may cause selection bias. The present analysis was performed with the aim to investigate the association between the factor V Leiden mutation and the risk of stillbirth in a population-based sample.

The Study of Health in Pomerania (SHIP) is a survey that was carried out in North East Germany. A random sample from the population aged 20 to 79 years was taken. The total SHIP population comprised 4,310 participants. The presence of the factor V Leiden variant was determined by PCR and Mnl I digestion. The presence of the factor V Leiden variant was neither associated with the number of pregnancies nor with the number of children per women. Data from 1,768 females who had at least one pregnancy with known outcome was available for the present analysis. Seventy-three women (4.1%) reported at least one stillbirth. Women with and without the factor V Leiden mutation did not differ with respect to the number of women with at least one stillbirth (OR for factor V Leiden variant 1.57; 95%-CI 0.76 – 3.25). Furthermore, the number of women with two or more stillbirths, the number of stillbirths per affected woman and the number of stillbirths per number of pregnancies per woman was similar between both genotype groups.

In conclusion, there is no association between the factor V Leiden mutation and the risk of stillbirth in a representative population sample.

Keywords

Factor V Leiden - APC resistance - stillbirth - pregnancy loss - SHIP

Full Text

References

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