Welcome to InCirculation.net
InCirculation.net is a professional cardiovascular resource intended for a global audience of specialists, generalists, researchers, and other healthcare professionals
Cardiovascular news provides daily news updates to help you stay informed.
Excess weight hikes recurrent VTE risk
19 August 2008
MedWire News: Research shows that patients with venous thromboembolism (VTE) are significantly more likely to experience recurrent episodes if they are overweight or obese than if they have a healthy body mass index (BMI).
The study, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, revealed that each 1-point increase in BMI led to a 1.044 increase in the adjusted hazard ratio (HR) for recurrent VTE.
"Since the association between excess body weight and the risk for recurrence is linear, even a small weight loss might translate into a reduction of the risk of recurrent thrombosis," say Sabine Eichinger (Medical University of Vienna, Austria) and co-workers.
"Patients of normal weight who have had a thrombosis should be told that weight gain might increase their future risk of venous thrombosis," they add.
The team followed-up 1107 patients with a first unprovoked episode of VTE who had completed anticoagulation.
Analysis showed that the 168 patients who experienced recurrent VTE during an average of 46 months of follow-up had a significantly higher BMI than patients who did not (28.5 vs 26.9 kg/m2).
After anticoagulation was discontinued, the 4-year probability for VTE recurrence was 9.3% in patients with a healthy weight compared with 16.7% and 17.5% in overweight and obese patients, respectively.
After adjusting for age, gender, factor VIII levels, prothrombotic mutations, and initial type of VTE event, the HR for recurrent VTE was 1.3 and 1.6 in overweight and obese patients, respectively, compared with those with a healthy weight.
Indeed, had none of the patients been overweight or obese, the overall risk for recurrent VTE would have been reduced by 26.8%, the researchers emphasize.
"Our findings that excess body weight confers an increased risk of recurrent venous thrombosis and is very common among patients with thrombosis can be of relevance for the management of these patients," Eichinger et al write.
They continue: "Healthcare professionals should be encouraged to emphasize the need for weight control when counseling overweight or obese patients with thrombosis."
