The Swiss cohort of elderly patients with venous thromboembolism (SWITCO65+): rationale and methodology.
Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is common and has a high impact on morbidity, mortality, and costs of care. Although most of the patients with VTE are aged ≥65 years, there is little data about the medical outcomes in the elderly with VTE. The Swiss Cohort of Elderly Patients with VTE (SWITCO65+) is a prospective multicenter cohort study of in- and outpatients aged ≥65 years with acute VTE from all five Swiss university and four high-volume non-university hospitals. The goal is to examine which clinical and biological factors and processes of care drive short- and long-term medical outcomes, health-related quality of life, and medical resource utilization in elderly patients with acute VTE. The cohort also includes a large biobank with biological material from each participant. From September 2009 to March 2012, 1,863 elderly patients with VTE were screened and 1003 (53.8%) were enrolled in the cohort. Overall, 51.7% of patients were aged ≥75 years and 52.7% were men. By October 16, 2012, after an average follow-up time of 512 days, 799 (79.7%) patients were still actively participating. SWITCO65+ is a unique opportunity to study short- and long-term outcomes in elderly patients with VTE. The Steering Committee encourages national and international collaborative research projects related to SWITCO65+, including sharing anonymized data and biological samples.
Division of General Internal Medicine, Bern University Hospital, Inselspital, 3010, Bern, Switzerland, marie.mean@insel.ch.
Marie
M
Méan
Marc
M
Righini
Kurt
K
Jaeger
Hans-Jürg
HJ
Beer
Beat
B
Frauchiger
Joseph
J
Osterwalder
Nils
N
Kucher
Bernhard
B
Lämmle
Jacques
J
Cornuz
Anne
A
Angelillo-Scherrer
Nicolas
N
Rodondi
Andreas
A
Limacher
Sven
S
Trelle
Christian M
CM
Matter
Marc
M
Husmann
Martin
M
Banyai
Markus
M
Aschwanden
Michael
M
Egloff
Lucia
L
Mazzolai
Olivier
O
Hugli
Henri
H
Bounameaux
Drahomir
D
Aujesky
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011788:Quality of Life; D013557:Switzerland / Q000453:epidemiology; D054556:Venous Thromboembolism / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000378:metabolism / Q000628:therapy*