Data from a case-control study published in New England Journal of Medicine in 2003 suggested that atherosclerosis was associated with VTE risk and launched the hypothesis of a link between arterial and venous thrombosis. In this project, we investigate the bidirectional relationship between arterial and venous thrombosis in large population-based cohorts, and explore the impact of atherosclerosis and atherosclerotic risk factors as potential common risk factors.
There is a link between arterial and venous thrombosis (Illustration: MostPhotos.com)
In this project, we explore whether major arterial cardiovascular diseases (CVD), i.e., myocardial infarction (MI), ischemic stroke and atrial fibrillation (AF) are associated with VTE in prospective cohorts. We further explore whether putative associations are explained by traditional cardiovascular risk factors (age, smoking, obesity, dyslipidemia, diabetes, family history of MI, metabolic syndrome, atherosclerosis). We also investigate the role of common prothrombotic genotypes for the relationship between arterial and venous thrombosis. We investigate the potential of arterial events as triggering factors for VTE, and whether complications after arterial events can mediate the risk of VTE.
Principal investigator: John-Bjarne Hansen
External collaborators: Ellisiv Mathiesen, Maja-Lisa Løchen(Department of Clinical Medicine, UiT The Arctic University of Norway), Inger Njølstad, Tom Wilsgaard (Department of Community Medicine, UiT The Arctic University of Norway), Frits Rosendaal (Leiden University Medical Center), Kristian Hveem (HUNT Center for Clinical and Molecular Epidemiology)