National survey of confirmed thromboembolism related to female hormones in Japan

Abstract

Aim: The aim of this study was to determine the number of thromboembolism patients among Japanese users of female hormones. Methods: A survey of confirmed thromboembolism patients among Japanese users of female hormones was conducted at randomly selected hospitals from across Japan. The survey examined six types of venous thromboembolism (VTE) and arterial thromboembolism (ATE) in all users of female hormones, including women and men: pulmonary embolism (PE), deep vein thrombosis (DVT), other venous thrombosis (other VTE), cerebral infarction (stroke), myocardial infarction (MI) and other arterial thrombosis (other ATE). The survey covered 5 years from 2009 to 2013. This study was approved in an ethical review by the Hamamatsu University School of Medicine. Results: The overall number of thromboembolism patients over the 5 years was estimated to be about 3211. They included 452 patients with PE, 795 with DVT, 157 with other VTE, 1228 with stroke, 478 with MI and 101 with other ATE. Among the abovementioned conditions, detailed information was available for 750 thromboembolism patients (645 women and 105 men), including 63 PE, 203 DVT, 159 PE + DVT, 65 other VTE, 189 stroke, 35 MI, 21 other ATE and 15 other cases. Thromboembolism increased year by year. The number of VTE was larger than that of ATE in younger people who used female hormones, while the number of ATE was larger than that of VTE in older people who used female hormones. Conclusion:The number and characteristics of thromboembolism patients among Japanese female hormone users were revealed in this national survey.