In a retrospective study, investigators found that a combination of rare and common genetic variants in some inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients significantly increased their risk of developing clot-causing thromboembolic diseases.
Senior author Dermot P McGovern said: “The genetic signature we identified more than doubled the risk of developing potentially fatal blood clots in approximately one in seven IBD patients.
“While the risk for blood clots in IBD patients could be attributed to episodes of severe inflammation in the gastrointestinal tract that led to surgery, or to a side-effect of some medications, very little was known about the impact of genetics on that risk.”
Researchers used whole-genome sequencing and genotyping to assess 792 IBD patients and then identify patterns associated with the development of venous or arterial thromboembolisms.
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