NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Obese adults and those with type 2 diabetes may be more prone to developing dangerous blood clots, according to US researchers.

Their study of more than 19,000 adults found that those with the highest BMI, a measure of weight in relation to height, were nearly 2.5 times more likely to develop venous thromboembolism (VTE), or blood clots, compared with their leaner peers, over the 8-year study period.

Adults with diabetes were nearly twice as likely to be diagnosed with clots, the researchers report in the May 27th issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.

In VTE, blood clots form in the veins. These clots can break free and travel to the lungs--a potentially fatal condition. For this reason, VTE is a leading cause of illness and death.

Men, blacks and elderly adults also were more prone to VTE, the report indicates. Individuals at least 85 years old were 15 times more likely to be diagnosed with clots than those 45 to 54 years old.

But other traditional heart disease risk factors such as smoking, high blood pressure, elevated cholesterol and physical inactivity were not associated with blood clots, the investigators found.

The results can help doctors to identify individuals who may be at risk for VTE and suggest that heart disease risk factors may not be important in determining this risk, Dr. Albert W. Tsai from the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis and colleagues conclude.

"The fact that smoking, high blood pressure and (elevated cholesterol) were not associated with VTE corroborates that venous disease likely has a different etiology from that of (heart disease)," Tsai and colleagues write.

The data also suggest, they add, that avoiding obesity or diabetes--or offering preventive treatment when necessary to obese or diabetic patients--could prevent some cases of VTE.

The study included adults with no history of blood clots who lived in six US communities. Over 8 years the investigators documented how many of these adults were diagnosed with clots and reviewed medical information and lifestyle self-reports.

SOURCE: Archives of Internal Medicine 2002;162:1182-1189.

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