Long-term consequences of venous thrombosis
Linda Flinterman of Leiden University, the Netherlands and colleagues report in this week's PLoS Medicine on the long-term mortality rate for individuals who have experienced a first venous thrombosis or pulmonary embolism. They describe an ongoing elevated risk of death for individuals who had experienced a venous thrombosis or pulmonary embolism as compared to controls, for up to eight years after the event.
The authors say: "To our knowledge, this has been the first study to calculate mortality rates compared with the general population and compared to specific control groups. Therefore, we were able to define overall risks of death up to 8 [years] after thrombosis as well as the risk for several subgroups. Our results underline the major consequences of venous thrombosis, not only with regard to morbidity but also to mortality."
Funding: The Multiple Environmental and Genetic Assessment of Risk Factors for Venous Thrombosis was supported by grant NHS 98.113 from the Netherlands Heart Foundation, grant RUL 99/1992 from the Dutch Cancer Foundation, and grant 912-03-033|2003 from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research. The follow-up of this study was supported by grant 2008B086 from the Netherlands Heart Foundation. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
Citation: Flinterman LE, van Hylckama Vlieg A, Cannegieter SC, Rosendaal FR (2012) Long-Term Survival in a Large Cohort of Patients with Venous Thrombosis: Incidence and Predictors. PLoS Med 9(1): e1001155. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1001155
CONTACT:
Frits Rosendaal
Department of Clinical Epidemiology
Leiden University Medical Center
Leiden
The Netherlands
Journal
PLoS Medicine