Upper-Extremity Deep Vein Thrombosis

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Abstract
Background— Upper-extremity deep vein thrombosis (UEDVT) occurs spontaneously or sometimes develops as a complication of pacemaker use, long-term use of a central venous catheter (CVC), or cancer. Methods and Results— To improve our understanding of UEDVT, we compared the demographics, symptoms, risk factors, prophylaxis, and initial management of 324 (6%) patients with central venous catheter (CVC)–associated UEDVT, 268 (5%) patients with non–CVC-associated UEDVT, and 4796 (89%) patients with lower-extremity DVT from a prospective US multicenter DVT registry. The non–CVC-associated UEDVT patients were younger (59.2±18.2 versus 64.2±16.9 years old; P<0.0001), less often white (65% versus 73%; P<0.01), leaner (body mass index [BMI] 26.8±7.1 versus 28.5±7.3 kg/m2; P<0.001), and more likely to smoke (19% versus 13%; P=0.02) than the lower-extremity DVT patients. By way of propensity analysis and multivariable logistic regression analysis, we determined that an indwelling CVC was the strongest independent pre...