Korean Circ J.  2005 Jun;35(6):474-479. 10.4070/kcj.2005.35.6.474.

Risk Factors of Deep Vein Thrombosis and Pulmonary Embolism in Korean

• Moon HJ
• Rhim CY
• Kim GW
• Kim KS
• Yoo BK
• Choi YJ
• Lee YK
• Han SW
• Ryu KH

• KMID: 2093939
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.4070/kcj.2005.35.6.474

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES
Deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism are both associated with a high mortality. However, in Korea, they are known as relatively rare diseases and are not sufficiently evaluated, so there is limitations in the proper approach toward their diagnosis and management.
SUBJECTS AND METHODS
The risk factors, accompanying illness and family history of patients with deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism, treated at Hallym University Sacred Heart Hospital, between January 1999 and July 2002, were analyzed.
RESULTS
There were 113 patients with deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism, comprised of 45 men and 68 women, 31 being older than 70 years of age (the largest portion). Of the 113 patients, 101 had identified causal illness causative diseases, but the other was no obvious risk factors. Overweight and obese turned out to be the most frequent risk factor. While there were 35% with one risk factor, 51.3, 10 and 3.7% had two, three or four risk factors, respectably. The recurrence rate was 20.3%, and that of women was 1.2 fold that of men, irrespectively of the risk factor. There were also two patients with a positive family history.
CONCLUSION
The freguent risk factors and underlying diseases for deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism were over-weight/obesity, antiphospholipid syndrome, cancer and a bed ridden state, in that order of frequency. As the individual risk factors of the patients overlapped in 61.5% cases, attention should be paid to overlapping risk factors. In order to reduce the complications of these diseases, each patient's risk factors should be carefully evaluated, and some patients should be advised to take life-long care.

Keyword

Pulmonary embolism; Deep vein thrombosis; Risk factors; Recurrence

MeSH Terms

Antiphospholipid Syndrome
Diagnosis
Female
Heart
Humans
Korea
Male
Mortality
Overweight
Pulmonary Embolism*
Rare Diseases
Recurrence
Risk Factors*
Venous Thrombosis*