Correspondence to:

Venous thromboembolism (VTE), i.e. deep venous thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE), is a major health concern worldwide as it affects approximately 70-100 persons per 100,000 annually and results in significant morbidity and mortal-ity (1). Important consequences of a ve-nous thromboembolic event include a de-layed hospital discharge or need for read-mission, complications from short-term or long-term anticoagulation, recurrent thromboembolism, post-thrombotic syn-drome and death. The research in this field has been focused mainly on the identifica-tion of possible risk factors for VTE an