AHA Journals, Author Interviews, Thromboembolism / 09.07.2014
Venous Thromboembolism Associated With Short and Long Term Increase In Mortality
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Kirstine Kobberøe Søgaard, MD
Department of Clinical Epidemiology,
Aarhus University Hospital, Denmark
Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study?
Response: Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is mainly considered an acute illness with a high mortality right after the event, whereas knowledge on the impact on long-term survival has been sparse. In our study, we used nationwide data on VTE since 1977, and included 128,223 patients with VTE and 640,760 individuals from the general population without a VTE diagnosis. We had complete follow-up data on individual patient level and were able to link information from other hospital admissions and thereby obtain each patient’s entire hospital history, as well as death statistics with specific cause of death. We confirmed the high mortality immediately after the thromboembolic event, but more interestingly, we found that mortality remained increased during the entire follow-up period of 30 years, with venous thromboembolism as an important cause of death among patients with deep venous thrombosis and/or pulmonary embolism.
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