Prevalence of factor V Leiden mutation and its relation with recurrent spontaneous pregnancy loss in a group of Syrian women

Objective: The aim of our study was to investigate the prevalence of factor V Leiden and its relation with RPL in agroup of Syrian women.Materials and Methods: The study group included 35 women with a history of recurrent pregnancy loss (two or moreabortions before 20th week of gestation) were referred to Orient hospital for obstetrics, gynecology and assistedreproduction, Damascus, Syria, for investigation between December 2005 and July 2006. All women with knowncauses of pregnancy loss after convenient investigations were excluded. The control group included 45 healthywomen from the same ethnic background, who had at least one successful pregnancy, and none of them had ahistory of fetal loss or complicated pregnancy. FVL mutation was screened by Real-time PCR method.Results: The results show that 10 women out of 35 with RPL and 4 women out of 45 controls had FVL mutation (28.6versus 8.9 %,P=0.022, Odds ratio 4.1, 95% CI: 1.16-14.4). From the 25 women who were primary RPL, eightpatients had the factor V Leiden (32 versus 8.9%, P=0.014, OR: 4.8, 95%CI: 1.2, 18.17). From the 10 women whowere secondary RPL, two patients had the factor V Leiden (20 versus 8.9%, P=0.30, OR: 2.5, 95% CI: 0.4-16.4). Allpatients and controls carrying the factor V Leiden were heterozygote.Conclusion: Our results revealed that the prevalence of FVL was significantly higher in women with RPL incomparison with controls, particularly in the subgroup with primary RPL, and there is an association between factorV Leiden mutation and recurrent pregnancy loss.