Polycythemia vera syndrome--as a protrombothic state.

UNLABELLED: The aim of our study was to investigate whether the disorder of coagulation and fibrinolysis factors are mechanisms that contribute to the prothrombotic state in patients with polycythemia vera (PV) syndrome with or without cardiovascular disease (CVD), in order to identify the patients having high risk for thrombotic events.

MATERIAL AND METHODS: The study comprises 20 patients divided in 2 groups: 10 patients with PV syndrome (PV) and 10 patients with PV and cardiovascular diseases associated (PV+CVD). The patients were tested by determining three factors of coagulation profile: protein S, free fraction (PS), antithrombin III (AT III) and Protein C (PC).

RESULTS: The level of the three parameters were found significantly modified in the both groups (p < 0.05); comparing the results between the two groups of patients, in the second group (PV+CVD) the level of the parameters were significantly lower than in the first group (PV).

CONCLUSIONS: In PV syndrome the risk for thrombosis is also due to the changes in coagulation factors. Patients with associated cardiovascular disease, present a more severe risk for trombothic events, so regarding the disorder of coagulation factors, this represent a major mechanism implicated in the etiology of thrombosis in these categories of patients.