Over 1 million Americans are affected with venous thromboembolism leading to loss of life and illness. Patients with cancer who receive chemotherapy are at an increased risk for developing fatal blood clots. Various earlier studies have also reported that preventive use of the blood-thinning medication can reduce these events.

A class of drugs commonly utilized to lower cholesterol may have a future in preventing blood clots in patients with breast lung colon and other solid-organ cancers. Research conducted by a team at the Albert Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia has shown that cancer patients taking statins had a decreased incidence of clots compared with patients not using the medications. But experts have added caution noting that the results which were due to be presented at the American College of Chest Physicians' annual meeting in Philadelphia are not yet ready for the general public.

Randomized trial: B-vitamins flunk prevention of coronary disease Other failures include DVT stroke prevention

DVT: clean ultrasound at 3 mos can probably stop anticoagulation New randomized trial Blood Journal

We all know birth control pills increase the risk of blood clots.  What we don't know is why or in whom to fear this complication.  Today we have a new piece of the puzzle to help us predict who will be affected by a blood clot while taking The Pill. Dr. Frits Rosendaal the guy who brought us Factor V Leiden in 1995 is at it again.  He's as close as we get to a true hematology rock star.  Even the general internists think about Factor V Leiden when they get a thrombosis patient and I have reviewed the implications of this testing here in an earlier post.

I found myself in the pathology department tonight and Dr. K. was there.  He is an 80-plus year old sage.  There's no other way to describe him.  So I told him about the recent paper I profiled below where birth control pill users with a long clot lysis time are more prone to clots.

Phone call Friday afternoon. "You recommended my patient to go on blood thinners after delivery? She has a Factor V Leiden but I have a paper in the obstetrical literature that reports we should only be using blood thinners in the highest risk women such as those with combined Prothrombin Gene Mutation and Factor V Leiden. You're basically saying there's a higher risk of thrombosis after the pregnancy than during since we took her off lovenox during the pregnancy?" Ok so I was at the gym not in front of a computer so I couldn't substantiate my hunch.