Utility of rotational thrombo-elastometry as an objective measure of hypercoagulability in ulcerative colitis.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) has an increased risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE), with factors such as hospitalization and surgery enhancing this risk. This study was aimed at evaluating rotational thrombo-elastometry (ROTEM) for assessing blood coagulation status in ulcerative colitis (UC) and determining its relationship with disease severity and response to treatment.

METHODS

This was a prospective age and sex-matched study with 60 patients each in UC and irritable bowel syndrome groups, the latter being controls. Clinical details and blood investigations, including ROTEM (clotting time [CT], clot formation time [CFT], alpha angle [AA], maximum clot firmness [MCF], maximum lysis [ML]) and D-dimer, were collected, analyzed and compared between the two groups. A hypercoagulable state was defined by Kaufmann et al. as having two or more of the following: short CT and/or CFT time, increased AA and increased MA.

RESULTS

There were 60 patients with UC (age, 38.6 ± 11.64 years; 44 males). The UC group significantly had more patients with hypercoagulable ROTEM than the control group (66.7% vs. 36.7%, p = 0.001). In UC patients with hypercoagulable ROTEM, nine patients were in remission and 31 patients had active disease. Compared to controls, CT, CFT, AA, MCF and D-dimer levels were significantly abnormal in the UC group. Among UC patients with increasing severity, only CFT, AA and D-dimer differed significantly across the groups. There were no significant differences in ROTEM values and D-dimer in patients with severe UC at admission compared to one-week post-discharge. Only hemoglobin (OR, 0.61; 95% CI, 0.38-0.98; p = 0.04) was found to be a significant independent predictor of a hypercoagulable state of active UC, on multivariate analysis.

CONCLUSIONS

More patients with UC had hypercoagulable ROTEM compared to controls, which increased with disease severity. Low hemoglobin was predictive of a hypercoagulable state in active UC.