Study: 1%+ of long haul air travelers get clots

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

http://www.cnn.com/2003/HEALTH/conditions/12/19/travel.clots.reut/index.html

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Study: 1 in 100 long-haul fliers may get blood clots

LONDON, England (Reuters) --Up to one in 100 long-haul fliers could develop 
blood clots, and wearing compression stockings, taking aspirin and 
travelling business class may not help, a study showed on Friday.

New Zealand researchers tested almost 900 passengers who took long-haul 
flights over a six-week period. The subjects travelled for at least 10 
hours a flight and each flew an average of 39 hours over the course of the 
study.

They discovered nine cases -- four of pulmonary embolism and five of deep 
vein thrombosis (DVT), which involves the formation of blood clots which 
can cause death if they invade the lungs or brain.

Seventeen percent of the passengers in the study by the Medical Research 
Institute of New Zealand wore compression stockings to aid circulation. 
Thirty-one percent took aspirin to thin the blood and reduce the risk of 
thrombosis.

The team, whose report was carried in The Lancet medical journal, said all 
air travellers were at risk, not just those in economy class.

"As a result, our findings lend support to the recommendation that the term 
'economy class syndrome' should be avoided with the disorder renamed 
'traveller's thrombosis."'

The New Zealand team concluded that their findings may err on the side of 
conservative estimates.

During recent court action, victims have blamed cramped aircraft cabins for 
their blood clots and argued that airlines have known of the risks for 
years but failed to warn people.

But a British court agreed with the airlines, which claimed that DVT was 
not an accident under the 1929 Warsaw Convention that governs international 
air travel.

DVT made international headlines and airlines came under pressure to do 
more to prevent the condition after a 28-year-old British woman died from 
the condition about three years ago after a 20-hour flight from Australia 
to London.


Copyright 2003 <http://www.cnn.com/interactive_legal.html#Reuters>Reuters. 
All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, 
rewritten, or redistributed.

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Find this article at:
http://www.cnn.com/2003/HEALTH/conditions/12/19/travel.clots.reut/index.html

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