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Updated: Jun 29, 2026

Electrolytic Inferior Vena Cava Model (EIM) of Venous Thrombosis
Published on: July 12, 2011
Association between intrinsic capacity, genetic predisposition, and risk of venous thromboembolism
Yonglin Chen1, Jiatang Xu2, Runnan Shen3
1Zhongshan School of Medicine, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China.
Objective:
Association between intrinsic capacity (IC) and venous thromboembolism (VTE) remains unclear, we aim to explore the relationship among IC, genetic predisposition, and incident VTE.
Methods:
In this large retrospective cohort study using the UK Biobank, IC, defined as the composite of all physical and mental capacities of an individual, was assessed across 7 factors (such as exhaustion, sleep duration, eye problems, hearing difficulty, weight loss, gait speed, and grip strength) and scored from 0 (best) to 7 (worst). Participants were grouped into five IC categories: 0, 1, 2, 3, and ≥4 factors. Incident VTE was identified through national medical records. Genetic predisposition to VTE was determined by the tertiles of polygenic risk score (PRS) derived from external genome-wide association data from the UK Biobank. Cox proportional hazards models were used to investigate the associations with multiple variables adjusted.
Results:
A total of 415,581 participants (median age, 57.0 years; interquartile range, 50.0-63.0; 54.96% female; 94.89% White) were included in the final analysis. Over a median follow-up of 14.37 years, 8299 (2.00%) developed VTE, including 3878 (0.94%) with and 4421 (1.07%) without a history of cancer. Higher IC scores were associated with increased VTE risk compared to those with IC = 0 (for IC = 1: hazard ratio (HR), 1.08; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.01-1.16; P = .029; for IC = 2: HR, 1.12; 95% CI, 1.04-1.22; P = .005; for IC = 3: HR, 1.19; 95% CI, 1.06-1.34; P = .003; for IC ≥ 4: HR, 1.46; 95% CI, 1.23-1.75; P < .001). Similar associations were observed in both cancer and noncancer subgroups. Furthermore, individuals with both the highest PRS and the worst IC (≥4 factors) had the greatest VTE risk, with significant interactions between PRS and IC.
Conclusions:
Our large-scale study suggests that poor IC is an independent risk factor for VTE. Moreover, integrating IC with genetic risk can identify a high-risk subgroup, which supports the clinical utility of IC assessment in VTE risk stratification.
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