SVT linked to increased risk of VTE

A new study suggests patients with superficial vein thrombosis (SVT) are 4 to 6 times more likely to develop venous thromboembolism (VTE). The risk had previously been confirmed in patients diagnosed with SVT using ultrasound, and it remained unclear if “clinically diagnosed” SVT posed the same risk.

“While current literature defines ‘real’ SVT as a disorder diagnosed both clinically and through an ultrasound, in reality, clinical practice does not necessarily follow this model, said Suzanne C. Cannegieter, MD, PhD, senior author of the study from Leiden University Medical Center in The Netherlands. “In fact, most physicians are able to identify SVT by the presence of a red, painful, palpable cord in the course of a patient’s superficial vein, for which additional testing with ultrasound is not necessary,” she said.

Dr Cannegieter and colleagues analyzed questionnaire responses from 4,290 patients with VTE and 5,754 controls without VTE. All study participants were previously enrolled in the MEGA study, a large, population-based, case-control study that investigated VTE risk in nearly 5,000 patients and 6,000 controls from anticoagulation clinics in the Netherlands from March 1999 until September 2004.

In the present analysis, the authors were concerned with whether or not a patient had SVT before VTE diagnosis or prior to study enrollment.

They found that SVT was prevalent in 10% of patients who had experienced VTE in comparison with 2% of the control group.

Patients with prior SVT were found to be 6 times more likely to develop deep vein thrombosis and 4 times more likely to develop pulmonary embolism than those in the control group.

“Our results, which are in line with recent studies that regard SVT diagnosed by ultrasonographs as a precursor of VTE, show that a history of clinically diagnosed SVT is a risk factor for future VTE,” said Dr Cannegieter. “We recommend that clinicians should actively ask patients for a history of clinically diagnosed SVT and use this information in their risk stratification analysis. Furthermore, people who experience symptoms of SVT are advised to see a doctor, particularly when symptoms do not pass or grow worse, as SVT appears not to be a separate and benign form of venous thrombosis, as previously thought,” she added..

The findings were published online August 17 in the journal Blood.

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