New test may identify risk of blood clots

27 July 2006

A new form of blood test could help identify patients at a low risk for recurring blot clots by measuring the amount of a certain protein involved with blood clotting.

Many people who suffer from a blood clot in a deep vein (DVT) could be at risk of suffering further clotting. Part of the blood clot can break off and travel to the lungs, resulting in a condition called pulmonary embolism, which can cause death.

Anticoagulant treatment, which breaks down the blood clot in the veins, is often given to patients with venous thromboembolism (VTE). VTE includes blood clots in the deep veins (DVT) as well as blood clots in the veins of the lungs (pulmonary embolism). Once the treatment is stopped, a third of patients develop another VTE in the next five to eight years.

Around five per cent of people will die if VTE develops again. Researchers are keen to find out which patients might benefit from continued anticoagulant treatment and which can be taken off it.

Scientists at the University of Austria, conducting a study which lasted from 1992 to 2005, found that patients who did not have recurrent VTE produced less thrombin than patients who had a recurrence. Thrombin is a protein in the blood that causes clotting.

Writing in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), the researchers said: "We believe that our findings are of major clinical relevance. Using a simple commercially available laboratory method developed to measure thrombin generation, we were able to identify patients in whom the long-term risk of recurrent VTE is almost negligible."

This means that some people who take long-term treatment for VTE may not need to continue taking the medicine.

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