HAMILTON, Ontario, Feb. 26 (UPI) -- Patients who develop a leg blood clot or pulmonary embolism are at risk for experiencing another blood clot within three years, a Canadian study found.
Dr. Frederick A. Spencer of McMaster University Medical Center in Hamilton, Ontario, and colleagues analyzed the medical records of 1,691 Worcester, Mass., residents -- 54 percent women, average age 65 -- who were diagnosed with venous thromboembolism in 1999, 2001 or 2003. Of the total, 549 had pulmonary embolism and 1,142 had isolated deep vein thrombosis.
Over the three-year study, among the 549 patients who presented with pulmonary embolism, 5.7 percent had a recurrent clot in the lung, 13.7 percent had a recurrence of either type of venous thromboembolism and 14.9 percent experienced a major bleeding episode.
Among the 1,142 patients who presented with isolated deep vein thrombosis over the same period, 5.6 percent developed a pulmonary embolism, 19 percent had recurrent venous thromboembolism and 12.8 percent had a major bleeding episode.
The study, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, found individuals with pulmonary embolism were more likely to die after one month, one year and three years than those with deep vein thrombosis.
