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Varicose veins are swollen, twisted veins that can be seen just under the surface of the skin, usually in the legs. It can cause moderate pain and has been linked to the more serious side effects of deep vein thrombosis, which occurs when a blood clot forms in one or more of the deep veins in the body.
According to a study led by Stanford University School of Medicine researchers that examined the genes of more than 400,000 people, the taller you are, the more likely you are to develop varicose veins. Genes that predict height may be at the root of this link between height and varicose veins and may provide clues for treating the condition.
The study identified 30 genes linked to varicose vein disorder and to a strong genetic correlation with deep vein thrombosis. There are no medical therapies that can prevent it or reverse,treatment is mainly limited to surgical procedures, such as laser treatment or vein stripping.
Researchers used data from the UK Biobank-both a long-term study and genetic repository that includes genomic data on about a half-million people to look for varicose vein risk factors using machine learning combined with epidemiological methods in 413,519 participants and screened for genetic markers using genomewide association studies in 337,536 of the participants, 9,577 of whom had varicose vein disease.
Risk factors like being older, female, overweight or pregnant, or having a history of deep vein thrombosis are associated with varicose veins. Having varicose veins puts one at risk of these blood clots. Surgery on the legs, family history, lack of movement, smoking and hormone therapy are risk factors. But the correlation they found between height and the condition was unexpected.
Researchers use genomewide association studies to examine DNA variation that may be associated with an increased risk for a particular illness. Using this method, the researchers identified the 30 regions on the genome associated with varicose veins. But the researchers also used another method involving machine learning, a type of artificial intelligence, to cast a giant net to discover any previously unknown risk factors.
Researchers included 2,716 predictors of varicose veins in the machine-learning algorithm, then let the algorithms find the strongest predictors of varicose veins. In addition to height, the machine-learning algorithm showed that bioimpedance, a measure of how well the body impedes electric current flow, is a strong predictive marker for varicose veins.
This measurement could potentially be used as a diagnostic tool to predict for varicose veins. When height emerged from the machine-learning analysis as a possible risk factor, the researchers conducted further tests to see if it was an actual cause for the disease using mendelian randomization analyses, a statistical technique to determine causal effects. The study suggest height is a cause, not just a correlated factor, but an underlying mechanism leading to varicose veins.