Introduction:
Von Willebrand factor (vWF) plays an important role in the coagulation process at the site of vascular injury. It is unclear whether vWF deficiency is protective against cardiovascular disease (CVD) since investigations are limited in this entity.
Hypothesis:
Our study assessed the hypothesis that the prevalence of CVD is less in patients with than without Von Willebrand disease (vWD).
Methods:
We queried the National Inpatient Sample (NIS) from 2009-2014. Entire data was used with exclusion of patients below 18 and over 75-year-old. We defined cardiovascular disease as any event of myocardial infarction or a diagnosis of ischemic heart disease using the International Classification of Disease, 9th edition (ICD-9). The primary outcome of interest was to compare the odds ratio of CVD in patients with and without vWD.
Results:
A total of 224,475,443 weighted hospital discharge samples were identified. Of these, 82,809 carried a diagnosis of vWD. The odds of CVD were less common in vWD patients (OR 0.54; 95% CI 0.52 - 0.56) (table 1). After multivariate logistic regression analysis, with adjustment for age, gender and the most common CVD risk factors including hypertension, smoking, diabetes, hyperlipidemia, family history of CVD, chronic kidney disease and obesity the likelihood of CVD remained lower in vWD patients (OR 0.65; 95% CI 0.63-0.67) (table 2).
Conclusions:
Our study, the first to involve a large cohort of patients, demonstrated that vWF deficiency is associated with decreased prevalence of CVD. Hence, vWF could potentially be a therapeutic target in CVD management. More investigations are needed for confirmation of these findings and to determine causation.
Association of von Willebrand factor deficiency with prevalent cardiovascular disease and asymptomatic carotid atherosclerosis: The Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study
