Anonymous wrote:Assessing Risk of Recurrent VTE (deep vein thrombosis)
A thorough history in a patient with thrombosis should include age at the first thrombotic event, location of the thrombosis, and presence of any precipitating or provoking conditions. Risk factors for venous thromboembolism are listed in Table 1,1,3–8 and Table 2 includes the relative risk of recurrent VTE based on risk factors.9,10 A VTE is considered provoked if transient risk factors are present. These transient risk factors are divided into major and minor categories.1,3,4 The more significant the provoking risk factor (e.g., surgery, trauma), the lower the expected risk of recurrence after anticoagulant therapy is discontinued.1,4,11 Patients with a transient provoking risk factor but no persistent risk factors do not require further testing,11–13 because these patients do not have a higher risk of recurrence than the general population.1,3
Conversely, patients with idiopathic VTE are at high risk of recurrence. One study found the cumulative risk of recurrence at one, five, and 10 years to be 15, 41, and 53 percent, respectively, in patients with an idiopathic VTE, compared with 7, 16, and 23 percent in patients with a provoked event.14 Another study found the risk of recurrence to be 4.8 percent at two years in patients with transient risk factors versus 12.1 percent in those with an unprovoked event.15
So HRC is at relatively high risk of another, after having had three so far. That is just one of her health problems. Also she is 69 years old.
http://www.aafp.org/afp/2011/0201/p293.html