Family history of venous thromboembolism as a risk factor and genetic research tool.
Familial clustering of venous thromboembolism (VTE) was described as far back as 1905 by Briggs. Although Egeberg discovered inherited deficiency of antithrombin in 1965, it was not until Dahlbäck discovered resistance to activated protein C in 1993 that it became clear that genetic factors are common risk factors of VTE. Several genes have been linked to familial aggregation of VTE and genome-wid