Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Disproportional increase of pulmonary embolism in young females in Germany: trends from 2005 to 2014

  • Published:
Journal of Thrombosis and Thrombolysis Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

We analysed the number of pulmonary embolism (PE) in young females aged 10–39 years in the period from 2005 to 2014 in Germany to see any trends that possibly may reflect some influences of newer oral contraceptives. Detailed lists of all hospitalized cases with the principal diagnosis PE coded as I26 in the years 2005–2014 were provided by the Federal Statistical Office. In males, the absolute number of all hospitalized cases with the principal diagnosis PE increased from 16,066 in 2005 to 25,364 in 2014 (rate +57.8%) and in females from 21,548 to 29,433 (rate +36.5%). The annual differences in PE between males and females decreased from 5482 to 4069 (−26%) in this period. In the age group of 10–39 years the absolute number of all hospitalized male cases increased from 1023 in 2005 to 1276 in 2014 (+24.7%) and in females from 1341 to 1949 (rate +45.3%). Thus in contrast to the overall trend the annual difference in PE rose gradually by 112% (from 318 to 673) from 2005 to 2014. Our ecologic nationwide analysis of hospitalization rates for PE shows that the annual differences between males and females cases hospitalized with the principal diagnosis PE in general decreased, but increased in the age group of 10–39 years in the last decade.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Moysidis T, Kröger K, Moerchel C, Santosa F, Gröchenig E (2010) Pulmonary embolism in young males and females in Germany: data from the Federal Statistical Office. Blood Coagul Fibrinolysis 21:511–515

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Santosa F, Moysidis T, Moerchel C, Kröger K, Bufe A (2014) Pulmonary embolism in young people. Trends in Germany from 2005 to 2011. Hämostaseologie 34:88–92

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Wiener RS, Schwartz LM, Woloshin S (2013) When a test is too good: how CT pulmonary angiograms find pulmonary emboli that do not need to be found. BMJ 347:f3368

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  4. Tsai J, Grosse SD, Grant AM, Hooper WC, Atrash HK (2012) Trends in in-hospital deaths among hospitalizations with pulmonary embolism. Arch Intern Med 172:960–961

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Wiener RS, Schwartz LM, Woloshin S (2011) Time trends in pulmonary embolism in the United States: evidence of overdiagnosis. Arch Intern Med 171:831–837

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  6. Syed FF, Beeching NJ (2005) Lower-limb deep-vein thrombosis in a general hospital: risk factors, outcomes and the contribution of intravenous drug use. QJM 98:139–145

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Moores L, Bilello KL, Murin S (2004) Sex and gender issues and venous thromboembolism. Clin Chest Med 25:281–297

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Heit JA (2015) Epidemiology of venous thromboembolism. Nat Rev Cardiol 12:464–474

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  9. Eichinger S, Evers JL, Glasier A, La Vecchia C, Martinelli I, Skouby S, Somigliana E, Baird DT, Benagiano G, Crosignani PG, Gianaroli L, Negri E, Volpe A, Glasier A, Crosignani PG (2013) ESHRE Capri Workshop Group. Venous thromboembolism in women: a specific reproductive health risk. Hum Reprod Update 19:471–482

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Dinger J, Assmann A, Möhner S, Minh TD (2010) Risk of venous thromboembolism and the use of dienogest- and drospirenone-containing oral contraceptives: results from a German case-control study. J Fam Plann Reprod Health Care 36:123–129

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Sehovic N, Smith KP (2010) Risk of venous thromboembolism with drospirenone in combined oral contraceptive products. Ann Pharmacother 44:898–903

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Jick SS, Hernandez RK (2011) Risk of non-fatal venous thromboembolism in women using oral contraceptives containing drospirenone compared with women using oral contraceptives containing levonorgestrel: case-control study using United States claims data. BMJ 342:d2151.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  13. Parkin L, Sharples K, Hernandez RK, Jick SS (2011) Risk of venous thromboembolism in users of oral contraceptives containing drospirenone or levonorgestrel: nested case-control study based on UK General Practice Research Database. BMJ 342:d2139

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  14. Bird ST, Delaney JA, Etminan M, Brophy JM, Hartzema AG (2013) Drospirenone and non-fatal venous thromboembolism: is there a risk difference by dosage of ethinyl-estradiol? J Thromb Haemost 11:1059–1068

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  15. Lidegaard Ø, Milsom I, Geirsson RT, Skjeldestad FE (2012) Hormonal contraception and venous thromboembolism. Acta Obstet Gynecol Scand 9:769–778

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank Referat VIII A 1 from the Federal Statistical Office for extracting and providing the data from the DRG-Statistik.

Funding

No fundings received.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Angiology, Gefäßklinik, Helios Klinikum Krefeld, Lutherplatz 40, 47805, Krefeld, Germany

    F. Santosa & K. Kröger

  2. Thrombose Initiative e.V., Mainz, Germany

    Ch. Moerchel & K. Kröger

  3. Department of Medicine, Angiology, Endokrinology and Diabetology, Evangelisches Krankenhaus Mettmann, Mettmann, Germany

    Ch. Berg

Authors
  1. F. Santosa
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Ch. Moerchel
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Ch. Berg
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. K. Kröger
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to K. Kröger.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

F. Santosa, Ch. Moerchel, Ch. Berg declares that they have no conflict of interest. K. Kröger has received a speaker honorarium from Bayer, Sanofi, Bristol Myers Squibb.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Santosa, F., Moerchel, C., Berg, C. et al. Disproportional increase of pulmonary embolism in young females in Germany: trends from 2005 to 2014. J Thromb Thrombolysis 43, 417–422 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11239-017-1486-0

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11239-017-1486-0

Keywords

Search

Navigation