All information >>> Air Pollution Linked to Blood Clots in Legs

MONDAY, May 12 (HealthDay News) -- Long-term exposure to the tiny, dirty particles in polluted air seems to increase the risk of deep vein thrombosis, which are blood clots in the thighs or legs, an Italian study finds.
"It is well-established that air pollution causes myocardial infarction [heart attack] and stroke," said Dr. Andrea Baccarelli, who led the study while at the Harvard School of Public Health. "This is the first time that anyone has connected air pollution with deep vein thrombosis."
Previous studies have suggested such a connection, said Baccarelli, who is now an assistant professor of environmental health at the University of Milan. "Several studies in animal models and in humans have shown that particulate matter, inhaled into the lungs, causes inflammation in the lungs," he said. "The inflammation can expand the cell body, so that the incidence of coagulation is increased."
Coagulation is the formation of clots that can block blood vessels.
Baccarelli and his colleagues assessed the effect of air polluted with particulate matter smaller than 10 micrometers in diameter -- about one-40th the width of a human hair. Such particles come from the exhaust of vehicles, especially those with diesel engines, and burning of fossil fuels, the researchers said.
The scientists compared the exposure to such pollution on 870 residents of the Lombardy region of Italy who had been diagnosed with deep vein thrombosis, and 1,210 residents who did not have deep vein thrombosis. The researchers used the average concentration of particulate matter measured by monitors at 53 sites.
Compensating for other environmental and health factors, the researchers found that the risk of deep vein thrombosis increased by 70 percent for every increase in particulate matter of 10 micrograms per square meter. Tests showed that the blood of people more exposed to such pollution took less time to form clots.
"This makes a very strong case that air pollution is connected to deep vein thrombosis," said Dr. Robert D. Brook, an assistant professor of internal medicine at the University of Michigan, who wrote an accompanying editorial in the journal.
"But it is a first study and a single study," he added, "and I would be cautious about making generalizations and drawing conclusions on the basis of one study."
Still, "the results are very positive," Brook said. "Even if they are overestimating the effect, the effect, which is relatively so robust, is there. But how strong it is requires further studies."
"If future studies corroborate their findings and address some of the limitations, it may be proven that the actual totality of the health burden posed by air pollution, already known to be tremendous, may be even greater than anticipated," Brook said.
Baccarelli agreed with Brook's assessment, saying, "clearly the finding needs to be confirmed in additional studies."
"We are working on that," he said. "We are seeking additional populations in which the same link between air pollution and deep vein thrombosis can be evaluated. We also hope that some of our colleagues elsewhere will be pushed to conduct other studies."
The findings are published in the May 12 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.

HealthDay

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Americano news >>> Air Pollution Linked to Blood Clots in Legs

Boston (dbTechno) - A new study has linked exposure to air pollution to the risk of developing blood clots in the legs.
Researchers from the Harvard School of Public health in Boston stated that people who have the highest level of exposure to air pollution are at greatest risk of blood clots in the legs.
The study linked air pollution from, for example, automobiles, to the development of deep vein thrombosis (DVT).
DVT is a blood clot in the leg that is associated quite often with people who travel a lot on airplanes, sitting for long periods of time.
As the density of the tiny pollutant particles was increased in the air, the risk of blood clots forming increased as well.
Dr. Andrea Baccarelli stated that This is the first time that anyone has connected air pollution with deep vein thrombosis.
The study has been published in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

See more: >>> Air Pollution Linked to Blood Clots in Legs

Long-term exposure to air pollution could be partly to blame for deep-vein thrombosis, according to a new Italian study.
The research, led by Dr Andrea Baccarelli, suggests that air laden with tiny particles of pollution produced by vehicle exhaust and industry fumes greatly boosts the chances of developing blood clots in the legs.
While numerous studies have linked air pollution to heart attacks and strokes, this is the first evidence of a connection to deep vein thrombosis.
Baccarelli, who led the study while at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, looked at the effects of fine particles smaller than 10 micrometers in diameter (PM10), which are able to enter human lungs through the nose and mouth.
The research measured the exposure to such pollution of 870 people living in the northwest Italian region of Lombardy, who had developed deep vein thrombosis between 1995 and 2005.
They then tested 1210 healthy individuals living in other parts of the region, assessing the concentration of fine-particle air pollution in their area of residence.
The researchers discovered individuals were 70% more likely to develop deep-vein thrombosis for every additional year of exposure to 10 micrograms per square metre of particulate matter.
The tests also revealed that the more people were exposed to this kind of pollution, the faster they developed blood clots.
''Given the magnitude of the observed effects and the widespread diffusion of particulate pollutants, our findings introduce a novel and common risk factor into the pathogenesis of deep-vein thrombosis,'' concluded the authors of the study, writing in the Archives of Internal Medicine, a bimonthly international medical journal.
''At the same time, [they] give further substance to the call for tighter standards and continued efforts aimed at reducing the impact of urban air pollutants on human health''.
A number of other risk factors have already been linked to deep-vein thrombosis, such as obesity, recent surgery, use of the contraceptive poll and air travel, resulting in its alternative name of ''economy class syndrome''
PM10, which can be particles of carbon, nitrates or other substances, has been linked to a variety of health problems in recent years, including chronic asthma, heart disease and lung cancer.
In Italy, around 8,000 deaths annually are attributed to disease linked to fine-particle air pollution.

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