Patients having blood clots in lungs often go without effective therapies: Report

New Delhi: According to a recent study, pulmonary embolism (PE) treatments have low rates of use across the United States.

PE, a blood clot in the lungs that causes shortness of breath and chest pain, is the third leading cardiovascular cause of death in the United States with more than 100, 000 lives taken each year.

A typical intervention for PE patients includes anticoagulants in an effort to prevent migration of the blood clot, but the higher-risk PE population (about 30 percent of all PE patients) are potential candidates for catheter-directed thrombolysis (CDT) and systemic thrombolysis (ST), both of which employ "clot-busting" medications known as tissue plasminogen activator (tPA).

However, in a new study, the University of Pennsylvania researchers found that the utilization rates of these potentially life-saving medications are low, particularly in the sub-group of PE patients who are critically ill.

ST is the method in which "clot-busting" medication is administered intravenously (IV) to eliminate clots throughout the bloodstream, while CDT allows the medication to be directly administered into the clot in the lungs.

(With Agency inputs)