SEATTLE, March 5 (UPI) -- U.S. specialists suggested Monday the blood clot in the leg suffered by Vice President Dick Cheney is associated with long periods of inactivity.
"We tell our patients who take long airline flights or even long car trips to try to move their legs to prevent these types of deep vein thrombosis," said Mark Garcia, an interventional radiologist at Christiana Care Health System, Wilmington, Del. "We have seen this in a number of our patients."
Garcia, who presented a paper at the 32nd meeting of the Society of International Radiology on deep vein thrombosis and how to treat the condition, said if the blockage is located in the lower leg, treating it with blood thinners is proper. "If the blockage is above the pelvis, more aggressive treatment is needed."
In his study, Garcia demonstrated that use of tissue plasminogen activator -- a clot-busting agent -- and a device that actually vacuums the clot out of the legs, can remove the threat of the clot.
If the deep vein clots dislodge, they can travel to the lungs and cause life-threatening pulmonary emboli.
