Summary
Recent data have showna higher incidence of arterial events in patients with venous
thromboembolism (VTE) of unknown origin than in those with the secondary form of disease.
Whether patients with idiopathic VTE have a higher risk of subsequent arterial events
than the general population is unknown. The aim was to evaluate the rates of subsequent
arterial events in patients with idiopathic VTE and control subjects. In a retrospective
cohort study we compared the rates of subsequent arterial events (i.e. acute myocardial
infarction, ischemic stroke and peripheral arterial disease) in 151 consecutive patients
with objectively confirmed spontaneousVTE and 151 control subjects randomly selected
from the database of two family physicians. We collected information about cardiovascular
risk-factors (hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, diabetes, obesity and smoke) at
the time of VTE episode, or corresponding date for the controls, and considered the
follow-up from this time. Patients and controls who had suffered from arterial events
before the index date were excluded. During a mean follow-up of 43.1 (± 21.7) months
there were 16 arterial events in theVTE patients and six in the control group (HR,
2.84; 95% CI, 1.11 to 7.27; p= 0.03).The difference remained significant after adjusting
for age and other cardiovascular risk factors (HR 2.86; 95% CI, 1.07 to 7.62).Overall
mortality was also higher in theVTE patients (12 vs.4 deaths). In conclusion, arterial
events are more common in patients with previous idiopathic VTE than in the general
population. These findings may have practical implications.
Keywords
Arterial events - venous thromboembolism
