Idiopathic Venous Thromboembolism and Metabolic Syndrome: A Meta-analysis

Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is a recognised risk factor for arterial thromboembolism. However, whether MetS is also a risk factor for venous thromboembolism (VTE) is uncertain. PubMed, Embase, Web of science, and Cochrane databases were searched for case-control and cohort studies as well as conference proceedings of the International society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis (ISTH), and the Women's Health International Symposium Thrombosis and Hemostasis Branch (WHITH) published on or before March 1, 2021, to identify eligible studies. All included articles were assessed by two investigators using the Newcastle-Ottawa scale (NOS). We calculated odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) to evaluate the association between VTE and MetS by using random or fixed-effects models. There were 31 case-control and 5 cohort studies with a total of 78,529 participants that fulfilled the inclusion criteria, MetS (OR 1.49; 95% CI 1.29-1.73) and its critical component obesity (OR 2.03; 95% CI 1.74-2.37), hypertension (OR 1.40; 95% CI 1.19-1.64) and diabetes mellitus (OR 1.22; 95% CI 1.01-1.48) were significant risk factors for VTE. MetS and its critical component obesity may contribute to the multifactorial pathogenesis of VTE. Key Words: Venous thromboembolism, Metabolic syndrome, Obesity.