London: A new research has said that people with low iron levels in their blood may have a higher risk of dangerous clots.
A study of clotting risk factors in patients with an inherited blood vessel disease suggests that treating iron deficiency could be instrumental in preventing potentially lethal clots.
The findings suggest iron supplements might be a way to prevent deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and other types of potentially life-threatening clot.
Each year, one in 1,000 people in the UK is affected by clots that form in the veins, usually the legs. As well as causing painful swelling, the lumps of blood can dislodge and travel to the lungs with fatal results.
British scientists looking for new blood clot risk factors studied 609 patients with haemorrhagic telangiectasia (HHT), an inherited disease of the blood vessels. Previous research had shown that HHT patients have a higher risk of blood clots, though the reasons were unclear.
Symptoms of HHT include excessive bleeding from the nose and gut, resulting in a loss of iron.
The study, published in the journal Thorax, showed that many of the patients had low iron levels because of iron loss through bleeding. They also had a higher risk of blood clots, which disappeared when they took iron supplements.
A blood-iron level of six micromoles per litre compared with the normal mid-range figure of 17 micromoles led to a 2.5-fold increase in venous thrombosis risk.
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