risk factors of arterial cardiovascular complications in patients with prior venous thromboembolism background the effect of cardiovascular risk factors cvrs and thrombophilic defects on the risk of arterial cardiovascular complications in patients with prior venous thromboembolism vte is unclearobjective we investigated whether the risk of arterial cardiovascular complications is increased after vte and whether cvrs and thrombophilic defects influence this riskmethods subjects were selected from three family cohorts of probands with vte or arterial cardiovascular complication before the age of 50 and thrombophilic defects ie hyperhomocysteinaemia prothrombin g20210a or elevated fviii for this analysis probands with arterial cardiovascular complications before inclusion and their relatives as well as relatives without the studied thrombophilic defects were excluded we calculated the incidence of arterial cardiovascular complications eg myocardial infarction ischaemic stroke transient ischaemic attack or peripheral arterial disease in subjects with and without vte and adjusted the relative risk for at least one cvr two or more thrombophilic defects and quintiles of a propensity score considering risk factors conditional to vte historyresults 861 subjects were included of whom 399 had experienced vte before inclusion twelve arterial cardiovascular complications occurred in subjects with and nine in subjects without vte history hence the annual incidence was 10 95 ci 05 to 17 and 07 03 to 12 in subjects with and without vte rr 15 06 to 36 adjusting for possible confounders did not change this relative riskconclusion the mildly elevated risk of arterial cardiovascular complications in patients with prior vte appears to be independent of cardiovascular risk factors and thrombophilic defects