Cardiovascular risk factors in idiopathic compared to riskassociated venous thromboembolism: A focus on fibrinogen, factor VIII, and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP)

Abstract

SummaryThere have recently been reports of an increased incidence of arterial cardiovascular events in patients with idiopathic venous thromboembolism (VTE) compared to patients with risk-associated VTE. The aim of our study was to evaluate whether elevated clotting factors, which have been linked to chronic subclinical inflammation and arterial thromboembolic disease, have a higher prevalence in idiopathic VTE compared to secondary VTE.Plasma fibrinogen,factor VIII,and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) levels were determined in a cohort of sex and age-matched patients with unprovoked VTE (n=101), patients with secondary VTE (n=101), and controls (n=202). Fibrinogen and hs-CRP levels were higher in patients with idiopathic VTE (fibrinogen: median/range: 331/214-524 mg/dl; hs-CRP: median/interquartile range: 1.8/0.8-3.7 mg/l) than in those with risk-associated VTE (299/162-458 mg/dl, p=0.004; 1.5/0.8-2.2 mg/l, p=0.05) and controls (302/185-644 mg/dl, p=0.001; 1.2/0.5-2.2