title: HIV infection is a risk factor for venous thromboembolism.
abstract: The reported incidence of venous thromboembolism (VTE) in patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection has ranged from 0.25 to 0.96% in clinical studies, but up to 17% at autopsy. A preliminary analysis at our hospital suggested that the frequency of VTE among HIV-positive individuals might be higher than previously reported. To further evaluate this issue, we performed a retrospective study of patients with a diagnosis of VTE and/or HIV infection discharged from our hospital between July 1, 1998 and June 30, 1999. A total of 13,496 patients were discharged during the year of the study. There were 244 patients with VTE and 362 who were HIV-positive. Ten of the 244 patients with VTE were HIV-positive (4.1%). The frequency of VTE among HIV-positive individuals was 10/362 (2.8%) compared to 234/13134 (1.8%) in the non-HIV-positive group, but the difference is not statistically significant. However, in patients under age 50, the frequencies were significantly different: 10/302 (3.31%) versus 35/6594 (0.53%), respectively (p < 0.0001). The frequency of VTE in HIV-positive patients less than 50 years old (3.31%) was greater than in HIV-positive patients over 50 years of age (0/60), but the difference did not reach statistical significance. In contrast, in the non-HIV-positive group, VTE was significantly more frequent in those 50 and older compared to younger patients (3.04% versus 0.53%, p = 0.0001). Statistical analysis indicated that the direction of association between age and diagnosis of VTE differed for HIV-positive patients versus non-HIV-positive patients. Our results suggest that HIV-positive patients under age 50 are at increased risk for VTE compared with non-HIV-positive individuals.
authors.affiliation: Division of Pulmonary Medicine, The Long Island College Hospital, Brooklyn, New York 11201, USA.
authors.forename: A Sinan
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Copur
authors.forename: Peter R
authors.initials: PR
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: Victor
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Gomez
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bergman
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Homel
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000375:Aging; D005006:Ethnicity; D005260:Female; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000150:complications*; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D013923:Thromboembolism / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology*