Background: The association between deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and atherosclerosis is still controversial.
Methods: We examined the rate of subsequent symptomatic atherosclerosis in patients with unprovoked as compared to secondary DVT with a retrospectively follow-up of a cohort of patients who 14 years earlier had developed an episode of DVT not preceded by arterial cardiovascular events. We collected information on the development of coronary heart disease, ischemic stroke, peripheral artery disease or sudden otherwise unexplained death.
Results: We retrieved information from 138 patients with unprovoked and 123 with secondary DVT. The cumulative incidence of symptomatic atherosclerosis was 17.6% (95% CI, 8.3 to 26.0) in patients with unprovoked DVT, and 5.1% (95% CI: 0.0 to 10.7) in those with secondary DVT. After adjusting for age, sex, smoking, hypertension, diabetes and dyslipidemia, the hazard ratio (HR) for development of symptomatic atherosclerosis among patients with unprovoked DVT as compared to those with secondary DVT was 2.89 (95% CI, 1.06 to 7.88; P=0.038).
Conclusions: The risk of subsequent symptomatic atherosclerosis among patients with unprovoked DVT is approximately three times as high as that of patients with secondary events.