Familial venous thrombosis

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Abstract
Summary: It is not uncommon for a patient presenting with deep venous thrombosis or pulmonary embolism to describe the occurrence of such disease in members of his or her family. The occasional familial clustering of venous thromboembolic disease has been recognized for many years; for example, Briggs in 1905 states: ‘The patient, a man of 35 years, has since 1887 passed through 8 attacks of thrombophlebitis in the lower extremities… Of 16 adult individuals among this gentleman’s ancestors and collateral relatives, 8 have shown a marked susceptibility to venous disease, in the manifestation of varices and haemorrhoids or in extreme liability of thrombosis in the puerperium or following acute infections’.