Repeated measurements of carotid atherosclerosis and future risk of venous thromboembolism: the Tromsø Study

SummaryBackground Whether a relationship between atherosclerosis and subsequent venous thromboembolism (VTE) exists is controversial. Objective To investigate the association between carotid atherosclerosis and VTE using repeated measurements of intima media thickness (IMT) and total plaque area (TPA) in participants recruited from the general population. Methods Participants were recruited from the fourth (1994-1995), fifth (2001-2002) and sixth (2007-2008) surveys of the Tromso study. In total, 10426 participants attended, in which measurements of IMT and TPA and potential confounders were updated at each available survey. Time-varying Cox-regression models were used to calculate hazard ratios (HR) of VTE across various levels of TPA and carotid IMT adjusted for age, sex and body mass index. Results There were 368 incident VTE events during a median follow-up of 10.8 years. Participants with increasing carotid IMT were on average older and had a less favorable cardiovascular risk profile. There was no association between tertiles of increasing TPA and risk of VTE in the time-varying model, and increasing carotid IMT was not associated with increased risk of VTE (HR 0.96, 95% CI 0.86-1.07). Neither plaque formation nor plaque progression was associated with risk of VTE (HR 1.00, 95% CI 0.98-1.02 and HR 0.96, 95% CI 0.84-1.11, respectively). Conclusion Carotid TPA and IMT was not associated with increased risk of VTE in time-varying analyses. Furthermore, there was no association between plaque initiation or plaque progression and subsequent VTE. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.