Office Workers & Blood Clots

Office workers prone to blood clots

Staying chained to your desk might place you at greater risk of potentially fatal blood clots in the legs, researchers in New Zealand say.

Deep-vein thrombosis, or DVT, is thought to be caused by sitting rigidly for too long.

Also called travellers' thrombosis, the condition is caused when a blood clot forms in leg veins and travels to the lungs, heart or brain days or weeks later, where it can lead to a heart attack or stroke.

Prof. Richard Beasley of the Medical Research Institute in Wellington looked at 62 people under 65 who were admitted to hospital with blood clots.

About 34 per cent were admitted after sitting at work for long periods, compared with 1.4 per cent among people who recently took a long-distance flight.

"There are considerably more people who are seated for long periods at work as part of their normal day than there are traveling," Beasley told National Radio Monday.

The researchers were surprised to find how long some workers, such as those in the information technology industry and call centres, were seated.

Walk for prevention

"We had people not uncommonly working up to 12 to 14 hours a day and being seated for that time."

Clots formed in 10 per cent of air passengers at high risk for the condition and in one per cent of passengers generally.

"The study suggested that people develop clots in their legs from sitting three to four hours at a time," Toronto cardiologist Dr. Beth Abramson, a spokesperson for the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, told CBC Newsworld.

"It wasn't common, but it was more common than we thought."

Certain segments of the population are at higher risk for clots because their clotting systems are more active, Abramson said. These include women on estrogen from the birth control pill, pregnant women and people being treated for cancer.

To avoid DVT, Abramson recommended office workers get up and walk around and stay hydrated.

Avoidance tips

For passengers, doctors suggest:

• Wearing compression stockings to improve circulation during flights.
• Stretching their legs occasionally.
• Taking ASA.
• Avoiding alcohol.

People should seek medical attention if they sit for a prolonged period and feel a severe cramp in the calf or pain higher up in their leg that doesn't go away, Abramson advised.

The clots are treated with blood thinning drugs, and the treatment can take months.

The research will be presented this month at the Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand. It will be published next month in the New Zealand Medical Journal.

Source:CBC.ca