Abstract Number: OC 42.3
Meeting: ISTH 2022 Congress
Theme: Venous Thromboembolism » VTE Epidemiology
Background: Patients with ischemic stroke (IS) are at increased risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE). Obesity is prevalent in IS patients and a well-established risk factor for VTE. However, whether obesity further increase the risk of VTE in patients with IS remains unclear.
Aims: To investigate the joint effect of IS and obesity on the risk of first-time VTE in a population-based cohort study.
Methods: Participants (n= 29 964) were recruited from 4-6th surveys of the Tromsø Study (conducted in 1994-95, 2001-02 and 2007-08) and followed through 2014. All incident events of IS and VTE during follow-up were recorded. Obesity was defined as body mass index ≥30kg/m2. Cox-regression models with age as timescale and IS as a time-dependent variable were used to estimate sex-adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) of VTE according to combined categories of IS and obesity with exposure to neither risk factors as the reference group.
Results: During a median follow-up time of 15.2 years, 1392 participants were diagnosed with a first-time IS and 808 participants developed a first-time VTE. Among those with IS, 51 developed a VTE, yielding an overall incidence rate of VTE of 7.5 per 1000 person-years (95% CI: 5.7-9.8). In subjects without IS, obesity was associated with a 1.7-fold higher risk of VTE (HR 1.70, 95% CI: 4.43-2.03) (Table 1). In non-obese subjects, IS was associated with a 1.8-fold higher risk of VTE (HR 1.75, 95% CI: 1.25-2.43). Obese subjects with IS had a 2.2-fold increased risk (HR 2.18, 95% CI: 1.22-3.88). Thus, the combination of the two risk factors did not yield an excess risk of VTE. Similar results were obtained in subgroup analyses with pulmonary embolism and deep vein thrombosis as outcomes.
Conclusion(s): Obesity did not result in a more than additive risk of VTE in patients with IS.
To cite this abstract in AMA style:
Tøndel B, Sejrup J, Morelli V, Mathiesen E, Njølstad I, Wilsgaard T, Hansen J, Brækkan S. Joint Effect of Ischemic Stroke and Obesity on the Risk of Incident Venous Thromboembolism [abstract]. https://abstracts.isth.org/abstract/joint-effect-of-ischemic-stroke-and-obesity-on-the-risk-of-incident-venous-thromboembolism/. Accessed March 21, 2024.« Back to ISTH 2022 Congress
ISTH Congress Abstracts - https://abstracts.isth.org/abstract/joint-effect-of-ischemic-stroke-and-obesity-on-the-risk-of-incident-venous-thromboembolism/