Objective: Essential thrombocythaemia (ET) is a myeloproliferative neoplasm in which there is an increased risk of thrombotic complications. The conventional thrombosis risk assessment of these patients is based on an age over 60 and a history of thrombosis. The aim of this report is to analyse the contribution of cardiovascular risk (CV) factors as possible additional thrombotic risk factors in the thrombotic complications seen in ET.
Patients and methods: One hundred and one ET patients (72 females and 29 males with a median age of 61 years) were enrolled between 1999 and 2011. Mann-Whitney and multivariate binary logistic regression tests were performed. The Kaplan-Meier method followed by the log-rank test was used to evaluate the probability of thrombosis-free survival.
Results: The presence of one or two or more CV risk factors significantly increased the risk of thrombosis. Separately, the contribution of high blood pressure and hyperlipidaemia proved to be influential, whereas tobacco use, diabetes mellitus and obesity were not significant. Significant differences were revealed in the probability of thrombosis-free survival between patients without CV risk factors and those with at least one CV risk factor, and between those with at most one CV risk factor and those with two or more CV risk factors.
Conclusions: On the basis of the results on the current cohort, it is suggested that CV risk factors may influence the thrombotic complications in ET.