Comparison of prevalence of metabolic syndrome between idiopathic and secondary deep vein thrombosis

Background- The association of the metabolic syndrome with idiopathic or secondary deep vein thrombosis (DVT) remains uncertain. In addition, the relevance of the different features of the metabolic syndrome as an independent or pivotal risk factor for DVT is controversial. We aimed to evaluate the prevalence of the metabolic syndrome in patients with idiopathic or secondary DVT and also compare the prevalence of the different components of this syndrome in the two clinical etiological conditions of DVT. Methods- In a cross-sectional study, 115 consecutive patients with a recent objective diagnosis of DVT (idiopathic in 87 patients and secondary to a known risk factor in 28 patients) who were referred to Rajaei Heart Center between April 2009 and January 2010 were enrolled in the study. In all the patients, DVT was diagnosed by means of compression Doppler ultrasonography. The metabolic syndrome was defined according to the ATP III recommendations. Results- Overall prevalence of the metabolic syndrome in the study participants was 9.6%, and the prevalence of the metabolic syndrome in patients with idiopathic or secondary DVT was 9.2% and 10.7%, respectively, which was not different between them. Relative to the presence of the different numbers of the metabolic syndrome features, no difference was found between the groups with idiopathic or secondary DVT. The presence of no feature was found in 6.9% and 7.1%, the presence of one feature was seen in 51.7% and 42.9%, and the presence of two features was found in 32.2% and 39.3%, respectively. Conclusion- Regardless of the etiology of DVT, the overall prevalence of the metabolic syndrome in our DVT subjects ranged from 9.2% to 10.7%, and this prevalence was independent of the etiology (idiopathic or secondary) of DVT.