Incidence rate of symptomatic venous thromboembolic disease in patients from a medical care program in Buenos Aires, Argentina: a prospective cohort.

FERNADO VAZQUEZ; MARIA LOURDES POSADAS MARTINEZ; JIMENA VICENS; FERNAN GONZALEZ BERNALDO DE QUIROS; DIEGO GIUNTA

Thrombosis Journal

BMC

Año: 2013

Background: The incidence of venous thromboembolic disease (VTED) is estimated to be, on average, 1?2 casesper 1,000 individuals per year worldwide. There are few data concerning the incidence rate (IR) of VTED in theArgentinean population at large.Our aim was to estimate the IR of VTED at the Italian Hospital Medical Care Program (IHMCP) in Buenos Aires, themost populous city in Argentina.Methods: This prospective cohort study evaluated all consecutive incident cases of pulmonary thromboembolism(PTE) and deep vein thrombosis (DVT) confirmed in patients over the age of 17 who were members of the IHMCPfrom June 2006 to May 2012. Any patient who had an initial confirmed VTED episode and was a member of theIHMCP at the time of diagnosis was considered an incident case.Results: There were 1,138 cases of VTED for 687,871 person-years of follow-up. The crude IR of VTED was 1.65 (95%CI: 1.56 to 1.75) per 1,000 person-years. The highest IR was found in subjects >80 years old (5.92 per 1,000 personyears; 95% CI: 5.41 to 6.49).The IRs adjusted to the population of the city of Buenos Aires were 0.90 (95% CI: 0.84 to 0.95) for VTED, 0.71 (95%CI: 0.66 to 0.76) for DVT, and 0.34 (95% CI: 0.31 to 0.37) for PTE.Conclusions: VTED is a common health problem with a high IR in members of the IHMCP, especially the elderly.This is the first paper to report prospectively the cumulative incidence of VTED in Latin America.