What are the causes of thromboangiitis obliterans?

When it comes to the causes of thromboangiitis obliterans, most people don’t know much about it, and everyone’s awareness of this disease is not very high. Because this disease does not occur often in our lives, it is usually simple and the causes of the disease are more complicated, so it is difficult for us to judge at once. It requires formal examinations and reasonable explanations to know what some of the factors are. Let us take a look at what the causes are.

The cause of thromboangiitis obliterans is still not fully understood. It is generally believed to be caused by a combination of factors, mainly including:

Smoking (20%):

Refers to active and passive smokers. Nicotine can cause blood vessels to constrict. According to statistics, 80% to 95% of patients have a history of smoking. Quitting smoking can improve the condition, but it will relapse after smoking again. Although smoking is closely related to the disease, it is not the only cause of the disease, because the incidence rate is not high among women smokers, and there are a small number of patients who never smoke.

Cold and infection (10%) :

Cold damage can cause blood vessels to constrict, so the incidence rate in the north is significantly higher than in the south. Since many patients have fungal skin infections, some scholars believe that it affects people's immune response, which can increase the fibrinogen content in the blood and make thrombosis more likely to occur. However, some susceptible people are often exposed to cold environments due to their work, and even if they have fungal infections, their incidence rate is not high. Therefore, it cannot be confirmed that cold and infection are the main causes of this disease, but it may be a trigger that aggravates vasospasm.

Sex hormones (15%):

The vast majority of patients are male and the disease occurs in young and middle-aged people, which is likely related to prostate dysfunction causing vasoconstriction disorders.

Vascular neuroregulation disorders (11%):

Dysregulation of the autonomic nervous system to endogenous or exogenous stimuli can cause blood vessels to be in a spasm state, leading to vessel wall thickening and thrombosis.