Associations between deep venous thrombosis and thyroid diseases: a two-sample bidirectional Mendelian randomization study

Background Some previous observational studies have linked deep venous thrombosis (DVT) to thyroid diseases; however, the findings were contradictory.

This study aimed to investigate whether some common thyroid diseases can cause DVT using a two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) approach.

Methods This two-sample MR study used single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) identified by the FinnGen genome-wide association studies (GWAS) to be highly associated with some common thyroid diseases, including autoimmune hyperthyroidism (962 cases and 172,976 controls), subacute thyroiditis (418 cases and 187,684 controls), hypothyroidism (26,342 cases and 59,827 controls), and malignant neoplasm of the thyroid gland (989 cases and 217,803 controls.

These SNPs were used as instruments.

Outcome datasets for the GWAS on DVT (6,767 cases and 330,392 controls) were selected from the UK Biobank data, which was obtained from the Integrative Epidemiology Unit (IEU) open GWAS project.

The inverse variance weighted (IVW), MR-Egger and weighted median methods were used to estimate the causal association between DVT and thyroid diseases.

The Cochran’s Q test was used to quantify the heterogeneity of the instrumental variables (IVs).

MR Pleiotropy RESidual Sum and Outlier test (MR-PRESSO) was used to detect horizontal pleiotropy.

When the causal relationship was significant, bidirectional MR analysis was performed to determine any reverse causal relationships between exposures and outcomes.

Results This MR study illustrated that autoimmune hyperthyroidism slightly increased the risk of DVT according to the IVW [odds ratio (OR) = 1.0009; p  = 0.024] and weighted median methods [OR = 1.001; p  = 0.028].

According to Cochran’s Q test, there was no evidence of heterogeneity in IVs.

Additionally, MR-PRESSO did not detect horizontal pleiotropy ( p  = 0.972).

However, no association was observed between other thyroid diseases and DVT using the IVW, weighted median, and MR-Egger regression methods.

Conclusions This study revealed that autoimmune hyperthyroidism may cause DVT; however, more evidence and larger sample sizes are required to draw more precise conclusions.