Venous Thromboembolism and Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Risk for VTE was two times higher in patients with IBD than in sex- and age-matched controls.

Patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) have elevated risk for venous thromboembolism (VTE) — including deep venous thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE) — and possibly arterial thrombosis.


To estimate the size of that risk, researchers in Denmark conducted a population-based study of 49,799 patients with IBD (14,211 with Crohn disease, 35,229 with ulcerative colitis, and 359 with unspecified IBD) and a non-IBD comparison group of 477,504 residents matched by age and sex.

Overall, patients with IBD had a two-fold increased risk for VTE compared with the non-IBD population. Although the overall incidence rates for DVT and PE increased with age, the relative risks for patients with IBD compared with residents without IBD were higher among younger patients. Patients ?20 years old with IBD had a sixfold higher risk for DVT and PE than their non-IBD counterparts. Excess risk for VTE persisted after adjusting for comorbidities such as heart failure, diabetes, myocardial infarction, and stroke, and for use of medications associated with increased risk, including hormone replacement therapy.


Citation(s):

Kappelman MD et al. Thromboembolic risk among Danish children and adults with inflammatory bowel diseases: A population-based nationwide study. Gut 2011 Feb 21; [e-pub ahead of print].