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Lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A2 and venous thromboembolism: a prospective study
Aaron R Folsom1, Pamela L Lutsey, Nicholas S Roetker
1Division of Epidemiology and Community Health, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55454, USA. folso001@umn.edu
Introduction:
Plasma lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A2 (Lp-PLA2) is an inflammatory marker associated positively with atherothrombotic risk. Whether Lp-PLA2 is related to risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE) is incompletely studied.
Methods:
We assessed Lp-PLA2 activity in 10,687 Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) Study participants and followed them a median of 8.3 years (from 1996-98 through 2005) for VTE occurrence (n=226).
Results:
There was no significant association between baseline Lp-PLA2 quartiles and risk of VTE, neither overall nor stratified as provoked or unprovoked. Adjusted for other risk factors, the hazard ratios (95% confidence interval) of total VTE across quartiles of Lp-PLA2 were 1.0 (reference), 0.95 (0.64, 1.42), 1.03 (0.69, 1.56), and 1.26 (0.83, 1.91). In the subset of participants with LDL-cholesterol ≥130 mg/dL, hazard ratios of total VTE were 1.00, 1.39 (0.44, 4.44), 2.45 (0.84, 7.11), and 2.84 (0.99, 8.14).
Conclusion:
Our study does not support the overall hypothesis that elevated Lp-PLA2 contributes to VTE occurrence in the general population. However, in the presence of high LDL-cholesterol there was some evidence that Lp-PLA2 may increase VTE risk.
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