Symptomatic venous thromboembolism and thrombophilic status in adult acute leukemia: a single-center experience of 114 patients at diagnosis.

Inherited and acquired thrombophilia are associated with venous thromboembolic events (TE). The prevalence of inherited and acquired prothrombotic risk factors and the incidence of symptomatic TE were evaluated in a cohort of 114 adult acute leukemia patients. The most frequent prothrombotic risk factor was hyperhomocysteinemia which occurred in 46.6% of patients. The incidence of TE was 9.6%, mainly in the first month of follow-up. In multivariate analysis, hyperhomocysteinemia was the only risk factor for TE (OR 33.90; 95% CI 1.53-751.33; p = 0.026). The results of this study indicate that measurements of homocysteinemia could be useful in determining the risk of early TE in adult acute leukemia patients, while systematic thrombophilia screening should not be justified. 2007 S. Karger AG, Basel