Haemostasis and Thrombosis
Myocardial Infarction, strokes venous thrombo embollism (VTE) are caused by thrombosis in the vessels of the heart, the brain or in the veins. Thrombosis is the undesirable formation of a blood clot within a blood vessel. Hypercoagulability and vessel wall malfunction are essential in the development of a thrombosis. The thrombin generation (TG) test is a promising novel assay that has been shown to be sensitive to detect a prothrombotic phenotype and elevated TG is associated with thrombophilia: TG is increased in patients suffering from a heart attack, high TG is associated with ischemic stroke, especially in women, and recurrent venous thromboembolism (VTE).
Stroke and myocardial infarction
Thrombin generation has been shown to be increased in patients that have a history of thrombosis. However, we are interested in predicting who is at risk for a thrombosis and who is not. Therefore, Synapse Research Institute is involved in the Italian Moli-sani study. The prospective moli-sani cohort consists of 23,643 subjects and we study the relationship of thrombin generation and the risk of thrombotic events, such as stroke and myocardial infarction over time.
Cancer and thrombosis
A known complication of cancer is the high risk of thrombotic events. We are currently collaborating with Weill Cornell Medicine in New York to study the development of thrombosis in 600 cancer patients to investigate whether thrombin generation can predict the risk of thrombosis.