A clinical risk score to predict the incidence of postpartum venous thromboembolism

Commentary on: Sultan AA, West J, Grainge MJ, et al. Development and validation of risk prediction model for venous thromboembolism in postpartum women: multinational cohort study. BMJ 2016;355:i6253.[OpenUrl][1][Abstract/FREE Full Text][2] Around 1 in 1000 postpartum women suffers from venous thromboembolism (VTE).1 The occurrence of deep vein thromboses (DVT), often found in proximal veins, may affect long-term quality of life,2 and pulmonary embolisms (PE) are a leading cause of direct maternal death in this very healthy population. Given the overall low absolute risk of VTE, as well as the cost of thromboprophylaxis and its possible side-effects, the use of prophylactic heparin is unreasonable if given universally, but should be tailored to individual risks. The aim of this study was to generate a validated risk-assessment model or prediction tool to estimate the absolute risk of postpartum VTE in individual women. Using two population-based … [1]: {openurl}?query=rft.jtitle%253DBMJ%26rft_id%253Dinfo%253Adoi%252F10.1136%252Fbmj.i6253%26rft_id%253Dinfo%253Apmid%252F27919934%26rft.genre%253Darticle%26rft_val_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Ajournal%26ctx_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ctx_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Actx [2]: /lookup/ijlink?linkType=ABST&journalCode=bmj&resid=355/dec05_12/i6253&atom=%2Febmed%2F22%2F3%2F98.atom