Long-Term Risk of VTE in Sarcoidosis

Abstract

Background

Chronic inflammation is increasingly recognised as a risk factor for venous thromboembolism (VTE), but unlike other inflammatory diseases including systemic lupus erythematosus and rheumatoid arthritis, data on the risk of VTE in patients with sarcoidosis are sparse.

Research question

Do patients with sarcoidosis have a higher long-term risk of VTE (pulmonary embolism or deep venous thrombosis, and each of these individually) compared with the background population?

Study design

and methods: Using Danish nationwide registries, patients >18 years with newly diagnosed sarcoidosis (>2 in-/outpatient visits, 1996-2020) without prior VTE were matched 1:4 by age, sex, and comorbidities with individuals from the background population. The primary outcome was venous thromboembolism.

Results

We included 14,742 patients with sarcoidosis and 58,968 matched individuals (median age 44.7 years; 57.2% males). The median follow-up was 8.8 years. Absolute 10-year risks of outcomes for patients with sarcoidosis vs. the background population were: VTE, 2.9% vs. 1.6% (P<0.0001); pulmonary embolism, 1.5% vs. 0.7% (P<0.0001); and deep venous thrombosis, 1.6% vs. 1.0% (P<0.0001). In multivariable Cox regression, sarcoidosis was associated with an increased rate of all outcomes in the first year after diagnosis (VTE: HR 4.94 [95% CI, 3.61-6.75]) and after the first year (VTE: HR 1.65 [95% CI, 1.45-1.87]) compared with the background population. These associations persisted when excluding patients with a history of cancer and censoring patients with incident cancer during follow-up. Three-month mortality was not significantly different between patients with VTE with and without sarcoidosis (adjusted HR 0.84 [95% CI, 0.61-1.15]).

Interpretation

In this nationwide cohort study, sarcoidosis was associated with a higher long-term risk of VTE compared with a matched background population.