Platelet Count and Major Bleeding in Patients Receiving Vitamin K Antagonists for Acute Venous Thromboembolism, Findings From Real World Clinical Practice

The outcome of patients with acute venous thromboembolism (VTE) and abnormal platelet count (PlC) at baseline has not been consistently studied. In real-world clinical practice, a number of patients with abnormal PlC receive vitamin K antagonists (VKAs) to treat acute VTE despite their higher risk of bleeding. We used the Registro Informatizado de Enfermedad TromboEmbólica registry database to compare the rate of major bleeding in patients receiving VKA for long-term therapy of acute VTE according to PlC levels at baseline. Patients were categorized as having very low (<100,000/μL), low (100,000–150,000/μL), normal (150,000–300,000/μL), high (300,000–450,000/μL), or very high (>450,000/μL) PlC at baseline. Of 55,369 patients recruited as of January 2015, 37,000 (67%) received long-term therapy with VKA. Of these, 611 patients (1.6%) had very low PlC, 4006 (10.8%) had low PlC, 25,598 (69%) had normal PlC, 5801 (15.6%) had high PlC, and 984 (2.6%) had very high PlC at baseline. During the course of VKA therapy (mean, 192 days), there were no differences in the duration or intensity (as measured by international normalized ratio levels) of treatment between subgroups. The rate of major bleeding was 3.6%, 2.1%, 1.9%, 2.1%, and 3.7%, respectively, and the rate of fatal bleeding was 0.98%, 0.17%, 0.29%, 0.34%, and 0.50%, respectively. Patients with very low or very high PlC levels were more likely to have severe comorbidities. We found a nonlinear “U-shaped” relationship between PlC at baseline and major bleeding during therapy with VKA for VTE. Consistent alteration of PlC values at baseline suggested a greater frailty.