OKLAHOMA CITY – Ignorance can be deadly when it comes to certain diseases. Now a University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center researcher is urging increased public awareness of a disease more deadly than breast cancer and AIDS.

Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT) is a disease more common than most know and one that affects people of all ages. It occurs when blood clots form in a person’s veins, rather than arteries. This most commonly happens in the legs.

“People don’t realize that blood clots that form in the leg and travel to the lung cause more deaths than heart attacks and stroke. In fact, they cause more deaths than breast cancer and AIDS combined in this country – over 60,000 deaths a year,” said Dr. Suman Rathbun, a physician and researcher with the new OU Vascular Center. Rathbun also participated in a U.S. Surgeon General task force on Deep Vein Thrombosis.

She explained there are a number of risk factors for Deep Vein Thrombosis. Among the most significant are surgery (most commonly orthopedic), obesity, having varicose veins, any trauma or injury to a leg, birth control or estrogen replacement therapy and even certain jobs.

Rathbun stressed the importance of being familiar with DVT, and knowing the warning signs. “The main things are acute or sudden changes in your leg. This would include sudden swelling, sudden pain, redness. Those are the main symptoms. The signs may be a reddish tinge to the leg, tender to the touch,” Rathbun said.

Carol Thomason, a DVT patient, thought she was going to the doctor for early symptoms of arthritis in her knee. The swelling in her knee was not from arthritis, but caused by a blood clot in her leg.

“I panicked. I mean, I just went numb. It was like, ‘Okay, people die from blood clots. What am I doing with one?’ I had no idea it could happen that way,” Thomason said.

Thomason was treated with medication that would dissolve the blood clot over a period of four to six months.

Rathbun said physicians are very good at treating blood clots. She said the challenge now is to find ways to predict when a blood clot will happen or even, more importantly, whether someone will get a second episode, which could be fatal.

Rathbun and fellow researchers at the OU Health Sciences Center are currently looking at blood clotting factors and genetic markers to find a better way to predict who is at risk. They are also involved in cutting-edge clinical trials involving new DVT treatments.

In the meantime, she said awareness of the risk factors and warning signs of DVT remain a person’s best protection. For more information, or to take a patient risk assessment for DVT, go online to preventDVT.org.

For additional information, contact Theresa Green (405) 771-2287