BMJ 1998;317:520-523 ( 22 August )

Clinical review

Science, medicine, and the future

Assessing thrombotic risk

Editorial by Vandenbroucke

Michael Laffan, senior lecturer in haematology, ^a Edward Tuddenham, professor of haemostasis. ^b

^a Department of Haematology, Imperial College School of Medicine, Hammersmith Hospital, London W12 0NN, ^b MRC Haemostasis Research Group, Clinical Sciences Centre, Imperial College School of Medicine, Hammersmith Hospital

Correspondence to: Dr Laffan mlaffan@rpms.ac.uk

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Venous thrombosis and venous thromboembolism are major medical problems. Because the time and scope for intervention are limited, the key to reducing the high morbidity and mortality of these conditions is prevention. Increased understanding of thrombotic mechanisms together with the recent identification of subsets of patients who are at increased risk of thrombosis are enabling clinicians to predict risk more accurately and increase the scope for targeted prevention. This article discusses current approaches and future prospects for assessing thrombotic risk and their relation to prophylactic strategies and new treatments.

	Background

In hospital practice, postmortem and other studies suggest that venous thromboembolism causes 10% of deaths and contributes to a further 15%. Although it is relatively less common in the community, where the prevalence varies with age between 1 in 10 000 and 1 in 1000 per year, it is still a major cause of concern. Anxiety runs highest when oral contraceptive or hormone replacement therapy . . . [Full text of this article]

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