Clot-Busting Drug may Help Diagnose Leg Clots
Reported February 18, 2005
(Ivanhoe Newswire)
— Clot-dissolving drugs, such as tissue plasminogen activator (tPA), used to treat heart attacks and strokes, may also improve the accuracy of a test used to help identify potentially deadly leg clots, according to new article in CHEST.
The d-dimer test, according to the study, detects the presence of blood clots by measuring the breakdown products of the body’s own attempts (using its own tPA) at dissolving a clot. However, the test has only been efficient in detecting a clot once its reached the lungs.
Researchers at the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta hypothesized that the large size of some leg clots may minimize contact between the clot and blood causing the legs to have lower rates of clot dissolution.
Using pigs as their animal model, the researchers induced a blood clot in each pig’s femoral vein and after taking baseline measures using a d-dimer test, injected progressively higher doses of tPA. The highest doses used were still well below those used to treat heart attack and stroke.
Results show, at the higher doses, tPA significantly improved the d-dimer test’s ability to detect the leg clots. Researchers believe tPA administered before a test may not only help detect clots found deep in the leg vein, but may also help weed out some of the false positives that can occur using the d-dimer test.
The study’s authors plan to apply their findings to clinical studies using humans and have recently applied for a grant with the American Heart Association.
SOURCE: CHEST, 2005;127:622:629
