Baseline characteristics
This study enrolled 314,861 AF patients (mean age of 71.2± 13.5 years) and 41,102 VTE patients (mean age of 64.3 ± 16.4 years). These two cohorts were different in age distribution, whereby the VTE cohort was predominantly age < 65 years while the AF cohort was predominantly age ≥ 75 years (Table 1). The AF cohort had significantly greater prevalence of hypertension, ischemic heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), hyperthyroidism and heart failure, while VTE cohort had higher prevalence of peripheral artery disease, cancer and auto-immune disease. In terms of medications, angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors/angiotensin receptor blockers, beta blockers and digoxin were more frequently prescribed in the AF population. In addition, the available follow-up period in AF cohort were longer than that in VTE cohort (AF cohort vs VTE cohort: 4.2 ± 3.4 vs 3.8 ± 3.5 years, standardized difference: -0.12).
After matching, 32,688 patients in either cohort were well balanced in baseline characteristics, including follow-up period (Table 1). In patients with DVT-only versus AF, the AF cohorts had higher incidence of ischemic heart disease, heart failure and COPD while DVT-only cohort had higher incidence of cancer, auto-immune disease and peripheral artery disease. (Supplemental table 1) In patients with PE-only versus AF, the PE-only cohort had a higher incidence of cancer. ( Supplemental table 2) In terms of the PE-only versus DVT-only cohorts, the PE-only cohort had higher incidence of ischemic heart disease, heart failure and COPD while DVT-only cohort had higher prevalence of cancer and peripheral artery disease.( Supplemental table 3)