Summary
About 60% of patients diagnosed with acute thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP)
display a severe ADAMTS13 deficiency. Recently, Raife et al. concluded from a small
case series, that factor V Leiden (FVL) might constitute a risk factor for acute thrombotic
microangiopathy (TMA) without severe ADAMTS13 deficiency. Therefore, we determined
ADAMTS13 activity and FVL carrier-ship in 256 consecutive patients presenting with
various forms of acute TMA, including patients diagnosed with TTP or hemolytic-uremic
syndrome (HUS). The overall prevalence of FVL was 8.2% (6.25% among patients diagnosed
with TTP, and 9% among those with HUS) concordant with the FVL prevalence reported
in Europe. FVL was present in 9.9% of patients with ADAMTS13 activity <10% and in
9.7% of those with normal ADAMTS13 activity (>50%). We conclude that FVL is not more
prevalent inTMA patients without as compared to those with severe ADAMTS13 deficiency.
The prevalence of FVL carriers in certain HUS subgroups (HUS with ADAMTS13 activity
>50%) reaching 12.3% suggests that a contributory role of FVL in the pathogenesis
of defined forms of HUS needs further study.
Keywords
ADAMTS13 activity - factor V Leiden - HUS - thromboticmicroangiopathy - TTP