International registry on splanchnic vein thrombosis: description of the study population

Background: Splanchnic vein thrombosis (SVT) is an uncommon, butpotentially life-threatening disease. Aim of this ISTH based registryis to improve the knowledge on SVT by studying a large, international,unselected population.Methods: Consecutive patients with objectively diagnosed SVT areeligible for the registry. Information on clinical presentations, diagnosticapproaches, risk factors, therapeutic approaches, and recurrencesof SVT, bleedings and deaths at a 2 year follow up are enteredon a website database (www.svt.altervista.org). We planned a samplesize of 500 patients, including all sites of thrombosis.Results: As of December 31st, 2010, 429 patients with SVT (85.8%of the planned sample) have been enrolled at 25 centres from sevencountries. The mean age is 52.6 years (range 16-85 years); 62.2% aremales, 67.8% are Caucasians, and 31.2% Asians. SVT occurred inmultiple vein segments in 36.4% of patients, 40.5% of patients hadisolated portal vein thrombosis, 11.9% of patients had mesentericvein thrombosis, 7.5% had supra-hepatic vein thrombosis, and 3.6%had splenic vein thrombosis. Abdominal pain was the most commonsymptom occurring in 56.6% of the patients; 9.5% of patients hadgastrointestinal bleeding at the time of diagnosis; 25.4% of patientswith SVT were asymptomatic. Mean time between onset of symptomsand diagnosis was 7.4 days. Objective diagnosis was obtained withabdominal CT in 79.9% of patients. Most common risk factors atthe time of diagnosis included cancer (24.1%), cirrhosis (23.1%), andhematological disorders (15.4%); in 15.9% of patients SVT was idiopathic.Most patients were treated with anticoagulant drugs: 30.8%with parenteral drugs only, 56.9% with parenteral drugs followed byvitamin K antagonists.Conclusions: SVT is a major challenge for experts in thrombosis andhemostasis. Large collaborative studies are necessary to improve theunderstanding and the management of this heterogeneous disease.