Incidence and Clinical Features of Venous Thromboembolism in Hospitalized Patients With Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Japan

• Published in: Circulation Journal 2021/11/25, Vol.85(12), pp.2208-2214
• Main Authors: Yamashita, Yugo, Maruyama, Yuuki, Satokawa, Hirono, Nishimoto, Yuji, Tsujino, Ichizo, Sakashita, Hideki, Nakata, Hiroko, Okuno, Yoshinori, Ogihara, Yoshito, Yachi, Sen, Toya, Naoki, Shingaki, Masami, Ikeda, Satoshi, Yamamoto, Naoto, Aikawa, Shizu, Ikeda, Nobutaka, Hayashi, Hiroya, Ishiguro, Shingo, Iwata, Eriko, Umetsu, Michihisa, Kondo, Akane, Iwai, Takehisa, Kobayashi, Takao, Mo, Makoto, Yamada, Norikazu, on behalf of the Taskforce of VTE and COVID-19 in Japan Study
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Asians; Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19); COVID-19 - complications; Humans; Incidence; Japan; Japan - epidemiology; Pulmonary embolism; Pulmonary Embolism - diagnostic imaging; Pulmonary Embolism - epidemiology; Pulmonary Embolism - virology; Retrospective Studies; Risk Factors; Venous thromboembolism; Venous Thromboembolism - epidemiology; Venous Thromboembolism - virology
• ISSN: 1346-9843; 1347-4820; 1347-4820
• DOI: 10.1253/circj.CJ-21-0169

Background:Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) reportedly causes venous thromboembolism (VTE), but the status of this complication in Japan was unclear.Methods and Results:The VTE and COVID-19 in Japan Study is a retrospective, multicenter cohort study enrolling hospitalized patients with COVID-19 who were evaluated with contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CT) examination at 22 centers in Japan between March 2020 and October 2020. Among 1,236 patients with COVID-19, 45 (3.6%) were evaluated with contrast-enhanced CT examination. VTE events occurred in 10 patients (22.2%), and the incidence of VTE in mild, moderate, and severe COVID-19 was 0%, 11.8%, and 40.0%, respectively. COVID-19 patients with VTE showed a higher body weight (81.6 vs. 64.0 kg, P=0.005) and body mass index (26.9 vs. 23.2 kg/m2, P=0.04), and a higher proportion had a severe status for COVID-19 compared with those without. There was no significant difference in the proportion of patients alive at discharge between patients with and without VTE (80.0% vs. 88.6%, P=0.48). Among 8 pulmonary embolism (PE) patients, all were low-risk PE.Conclusions:Among a relatively small number of patients undergoing contrast-enhanced CT examination in Japanese real-world clinical practice, there were no VTE patients among those with mild COVID-19, but the incidence of VTE seemed to be relatively high among severe COVID-19 patients, although all PE events were low-risk without significant effect on mortality risk.