Incidence rate of symptomatic venous thromboembolic disease in patients from a medical care program in Buenos Aires, Argentina: a prospective cohort.
BACKGROUND
The incidence of venous thromboembolic disease (VTED) is estimated to be, on average, 1-2 cases per 1,000 individuals per year worldwide. There are few data concerning the incidence rate (IR) of VTED in the Argentinean population at large.Our aim was to estimate the IR of VTED at the Italian Hospital Medical Care Program (IHMCP) in Buenos Aires, the most 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 IHMCP from June 2006 to May 2012. Any patient who had an initial confirmed VTED episode and was a member of the IHMCP 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 person years; 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.
Departamento de Medicina Interna [Internal Medicine Department], 2° piso [2nd floor], Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires [Italian Hospital of Buenos Aires], Perón 4190 Buenos Aires C1181ACH, Argentina. fernando.vazquez@hospitalitaliano.org.ar.
Fernando Javier
FJ
Vázquez
María Lourdes
ML
Posadas-Martínez
Jimena
J
Vicens
Fernán
F
González Bernaldo de Quirós
Diego Hernán
DH
Giunta