Work

Arterial cardiovascular disease risk after venous thromboembolism in young adults: a Danish nationwide cohort study

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: BACKGROUND: Young adults account for a substantial proportion of patients with venous thromboembolism (VTE). It is not known whether this group is at elevated risk of arterial cardiovascular disease (CVD). METHODS: In a Danish nationwide cohort study from 1996 to 2021, we estimated incidence rates and cumulative incidence as a measure of CVD risk (myocardial infarction and ischemic stroke) in young adults (≤40 years of age) with a VTE. Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to compute hazard ratios (HRs) with corresponding 95% confidence intervals (95%CIs), adjusted for comorbidities, using an age- and sex-matched (1:5 ratio) general population comparison cohort as reference. Analyses were performed within 0-1-year, 0-5-year, and 0-10-year follow-up windows, for men and women separately, stratified by age group, by type of provoking VTE risk factor, and by calendar year. RESULTS: The VTE and comparison cohorts comprised 15,810 and 79,050 young adults, respectively. The incidence rate of CVD per 10,000 person-years was 25.5 (95%CI 23.2-27.7) in the VTE cohort and 11.0 (95%CI 10.3-11.6) in the comparison cohort. Adjusted HRs (comparison cohort as reference) for CVD in the VTE cohort were 7.4 (95%CI 4.3-12.8), 3.8 (95%CI 3.0-4.9), and 3.1 (95%CI 2.6-3.6) for the 0-1-, 0-5-, and 0-10-year follow-up windows, respectively. Similar findings were observed for myocardial infarction and ischemic stroke as separate outcomes and in analyses stratified by sex, age, VTE- provoking risk factors, and calendar year. CONCLUSION: Young adults with VTE had an elevated risk of CVD compared with persons in an age- and sex-matched comparison cohort. FUNDING: This study was supported by Department of Clinical Epidemiology, Center for Population Medicine, Aarhus University and Aarhus University Hospital, Denmark and by the Independent Research Fund Denmark (3101-00102B).

Source: European Journal of Preventive Cardiology

DOI: 10.1093/eurjpc/zwaf747

Authors: Luuk J J Scheres, Emese K Vágó, Cecilia H Fuglsang, Suzanne C Cannegieter, Erzsébet Horváth-Puhó, Henrik T Sørensen