Integrin polymorphisms as risk factors for thrombosis.

The study of integrin polymorphisms as risk factors for thrombosis is in its infancy. Like many other purported genetic risk factors, controversies abound, and it will take much work to shift through the information and identify those individuals for whom these genetic variations are true risks for thrombosis. There is a clear need for well-designed, large, prospective, genetic epidemiologic studies. Large clinical trials should be helpful in this regard, and genotyping patients in these studies will be the only way to correlate response to therapy with genetic factors (pharmacogenetics). Hand-in-hand with such clinical investigations, in vitro studies of the functional consequences of these inherited traits should provide a sound rationale for future interventions that will ultimately be beneficial to patients.