The cross-sectional association between vasomotor symptoms and hemostatic parameter levels in postmenopausal women

Laura B. Harrington*, Marc Blondon, Mary Cushman, Andrew M. Kaunitz, Jacques E. Rossouw, Matthew A. Allison, Lisa W. Martin, Karen C. Johnson, Jan Rosing, Nancy F. Woods, Andrea Z. LaCroix, Susan R. Heckbert, Barbara McKnight, Nicholas L. Smith

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Objective: Vasomotor symptom s(VMS) may be a marker of cardiovascular risk. We aimed to evaluate the cross-sectional association of VMS presence and severity with hemostatic parameter levels measured at baseline among Women's Health Initiative (WHI) Hormone Therapy trial postmenopausal participants.

Methods: This cross-sectional analysis included 2,148 postmenopausal women with measures of VMS presence and severity reported in the 4 weeks before WHI baseline, who were not using warfarin or hormone therapy and for whom the following baseline hemostatic parameters were measured within the WHI Cardiovascular Disease Biomarker Case-Control Study: antithrombin, plasminogen activator inhibitor-1, protein C antigen, total and free protein S antigen, total and free tissue factor pathway inhibitor, D-dimer, normalized activated protein C sensitivity ratio, and thrombin generation. Using multiple linear regression, we estimated the adjusted average difference in each hemostatic parameter associated with VMS presence and severity. A multiple comparisons-corrected P value was computed using the P-min procedure to determine statistical significance of our smallest observed P value.

Results: Women were 67 years of age on average and 33% reported VMS presence at baseline. There was some suggestion that VMS presence may be associated with a -0.34 adjusted difference in normalized activated protein C sensitivity ratio compared with no VMS (95% CI, -0.60 to -0.087; P = 0.009), but this association was not significant after correction for multiple comparisons (P = 0.073). VMS presence or severity was not significantly associated with the other hemostatic parameters.

Conclusions: We found no convincing evidence that VMS presence or severity was associated with levels of hemostatic parameters among postmenopausal women.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)360-370
Number of pages11
JournalMenopause-The Journal of the North American Menopause Society
Volume24
Issue number4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Apr 2017

Keywords

  • Epidemiology
  • Hemostasis
  • Hot flashes
  • Menopause
  • HORMONE REPLACEMENT THERAPY
  • ACTIVATED PROTEIN-C
  • RANDOMIZED CONTROLLED-TRIAL
  • FACTOR PATHWAY INHIBITOR
  • CARDIOVASCULAR-DISEASE
  • MENOPAUSAL TRANSITION
  • THROMBIN GENERATION
  • VENOUS THROMBOSIS
  • HOT FLASHES
  • HEALTH

Cite this