New Research Explores Gender and Thrombosis

New research, led by Dr. Tzoran from the Department of Internal Medicine, Rambam Health Care Campus in Haifa, Israel, is looking to compare patients with venous thromboembolism and factor V Leiden (FLV) or prothrombin 20210G-A mutation (PTM) based on their gender. The group used the RIETE (Registro Informatizado Enfermedad TromboEmbolica) database to conduct their research. They compared the rate of VTE recurrences and major bleeding in FVL and PTM carriers during and after anticoagulation therapy.

Researchers found that:

“From March 2001 to September 2016, 11,224 VTE patients underwent thrombophilia testing. Of these, 1,563 were FVL carriers (863 men and 700 women) and 1,231 were PTM carriers (659 men and 572 women). During the course of anticoagulant therapy, men with FVL had a 6-fold higher rate of VTE recurrences than major bleeds (31 vs. 5 events). In women with FVL, the rate of VTE recurrences was 2-fold higher (16 vs. 8), as was in men (17 vs. 8) or women (17 vs. 9) with PTM. After discontinuing anticoagulation, men with FVL had a 3-fold higher rate of DVT recurrences than women (hazard ratio [HR]: 3.13; 95% CI: 1.79-5.67), with no differences in PE recurrences. Among patients with PTM, there were no gender differences in the rate of DVT (HR: 1.89; 95% CI: 1.00-3.65) or PE recurrences (HR: 1.82; 95% CI: 0.83-4.12).”

A full look at the research can be found here.

A similar study was conducted in 2014, “Sex differences in patients receiving anticoagulant therapy for venous thromboembolism.” Researchers compared the rate of VTE recurrence, bleeding, and mortality in patients based on their gender. There was no focus on genetic factors, such as FLV or PTM. That study concluded that, “women had fewer DVT recurrences and more bleeds than men during the course of anticoagulation.”

However, they found that these results were not because of the different physical genders, but rather from gender-based characteristics. They write, “These differences were not due to sex, but very likely to other patient characteristics more common in female patients and differences in treatment choice.”

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