Eight important updates for DVT Awareness Month
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Deep Vein Thrombosis Awareness Month is observed every March.
The public health initiative is intended to educate the public about this serious and often undiagnosed condition and its potentially fatal complication, pulmonary embolism.
DVT is caused when a blood clot forms deep in the body. PE occurs when clots above the knee break off, travel through the blood stream and lead to a blocked vessel in the lung.
Together, DVT and PE are known as venous thromboembolism.
VTE affects as many as 900,000 Americans each year. Up to 100,000 people die of blood clots each year, and they are a leading cause of mortality among individuals with cancer.
In conjunction with DVT Awareness Month, Healio presents the following updates in blood clot risk reduction and treatment.
- More than one in 10 patients with lymphoma who underwent chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy developed new VTE. Read more.
- Children with peripherally inserted central catheters demonstrated a significantly higher risk for VTE, central line-associated bloodstream infections and catheter malfunctions than children with centrally inserted tunneled lines. Read more.
- Black patients with cancer appeared to be at a higher risk for cancer-associated VTE than patients of other races. Read more.
- Apixaban (Eliquis, Bristol-Myers Squibb) reduced the risk for recurrent VTE compared with low-molecular-weight heparin and warfarin. Read more.
- Body weight-adjusted regimens of rivaroxaban (Xarelto, Janssen) appeared to be safe and effective for children with VTE. Read more.
- Direct oral anticoagulants should be used to prevent VTE among certain patients with cancer, as well as to treat those who develop blood clots, according to updated ASCO recommendations published in Journal of Clinical Oncology. Read more.
- Extended treatment with oral edoxaban (Savaysa, Daiichi Sankyo) appeared comparable to subcutaneous dalteparin (Fragmin, Pfizer) in safety and effectiveness for prevention of recurrent venous thromboembolism and major bleeding among patients with active cancer. Read more.
- Patients hospitalized for heart failure had significantly elevated long-term risk for VTE regardless of ejection fraction. Read more.