Does a positive family history for premature cardiovascular disease identify patients prone to recurrent arterial thrombotic events?
Patients with a first premature arterial thrombotic event and a positive family history for CVD have an increased risk for a second event of the same nature. This might be due to unknown hereditary mechanisms leading to recurrent acute events.
Liver transplanted patients who received steroids before LT due to immunological disorders and patients with autoimmune hepatitis seem to be at particular high risk to develop PTLD. Prospective cohort studies including immunoepidemiologic investigations of abnormalities of cellular, humoral and innate immunity should be carried out to identify predictive factors and patients at risk.