Simple Test Effective In Detecting Dangerous Blood Clots

Layne Lowery

When your healthy blood flow is interrupted it can result in memory loss… muscle pain… high blood pressure… migraines… and not to mention the risk of serious health disasters!

Most times your poor circulation is the cause of rogue blood clots traveling through your bloodstream. A widely used technique to detect deep vein clots involves an ultrasound machine where a short scan is administered to two veins—one located in your groin and the other behind the knee.

Advanced ultrasounds may also be given by specialists, which evaluate the entire vein system, one leg at a time. These tests are often time consuming and expensive.

But now, new findings released from the Civic Hospital in Brescia, Italy, show a simple and inexpensive blood test can be just as effective. Blood clots can contribute not only to poor circulation—but could prove to be fatal from such conditions like deep vein thrombosis (DVT).

DVT occurs when large blood clots form deep in your veins, usually in your leg or thigh. The clot can break off from the vein and travel, undetected, through your entire body and cause a serious heart or brain disaster.

Researchers split 2,100 patients into two groups and tested both methods. Results show that the simple blood tests found the same amount of deep vein clots as the traditional methods.

The study results were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.