The risk of subsequent cancer and arterial cardiovascular events in patients with superficial vein thrombosis in the legs.

Link to article at PubMed

The risk of subsequent cancer and arterial cardiovascular events in patients with superficial vein thrombosis in the legs.

Blood. 2011 Aug 31;

Authors: Prandoni P, Casiglia E, Tikhonoff V, Leizorovicz A, Decousus H

Abstract
While it has been clearly demonstrated that venous thromboembolism is associated with an increased risk of subsequent overt cancer and arterial cardiovascular events in comparison to control populations, whether this association also applies to patients with isolated (i.e., without concomitant involvement of the deep vein system) superficial vein thrombosis (SVT) in the legs is unknown. In 737 consecutive patients with isolated SVT not involving the sapheno-femoral junction we conducted a retrospective investigation to assess the rate of cancer and that of arterial cardiovascular events occurring during follow-up. The event rates were compared with those occurring in 1438 controls having comparable characteristics. Both cases and controls were followed-up for an average period of 26 ± 8 months (range 3 to 45). Malignancy was diagnosed in 26 cases (3.5%) and 56 controls (3.9%), leading to a hazard ratio (HR) of 0.86 (95% CI, 0.55 to 1.35). Arterial cardiovascular events occurred in 32 cases (4.3%) and 63 controls (4.4%), leading to a HR of 0.97 (95% CI, 0.63 to 1.50). We conclude that the occurrence of isolated SVT in the legs does not place patients at an increased risk of malignancies or arterial cardiovascular events. Whether this also applies to patients whose thrombosis involves the sapheno-femoral junction remains to be demonstrated.

PMID: 21881049 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

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