Table 1.

Guidance questions to be considered

(1) What is the incidence of VTE, PE with or without (±) DVT and leg DVT alone, both overall, and by age, sex and race, and by idiopathic versus secondary VTE?

(2) What are the trends in incidence over time of overall VTE, leg DVT alone and PE ± DVT, and of idiopathic versus secondary VTE? How are these trends affected by changes in diagnostic test utilization, imaging resolution and autopsy rates over time?

(3) What is the cumulative incidence of VTE recurrence, both overall and by leg DVT alone versus PE ± DVT?

(4) What baseline and time-dependent characteristics are independent predictors of VTE recurrence after adjustment for primary treatment and secondary prophylaxis? Within the major predictors of VTE recurrence, can the individual patient be further stratified into high and low risk? How well do available VTE recurrence risk-prediction scores operate in predicting recurrence?

(5) What are the attack rates (i.e. incident and recurrent VTE) of VTE, both overall and by hospitalization-related versus community-acquired VTE? What is the total number of VTE events (incident and recurrent) per year in the USA?

(6) What are the VTE-attributable costs?

(7) What is the survival after VTE overall, and after leg DVT alone vs. PE ± DVT. What are the independent predictors of survival? What are the trends in survival over time after PE ± DVT?

(8) What are the independent risk factors for VTE? How well do incident VTE risk prediction scores operate in predicting incident VTE for the individual?