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St Joseph Mercy Oakland, Pontiac, MI, USA.
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Editor’s note: Since abnormalities in coagulation factors have been detected in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and there is some evidence to suggests that RA patients have an increased incidence of thrombosis, the authors investigated the risk of pulmonary embolism (PE), deep vein thrombosis (DVT), and venous thromboembolism (VTE; defined as PE and/or DVT) in RA patients. Data on patients with RA and those without RA who were hospitalized in the US from 1979 to 2005 were obtained from the database of the National Hospital Discharge Survey (NHDS) and analyzed for orthopedic operation and PE and DVT incidence.