Researchers identify new approach to diagnose blood clots in lungs of elderly patients. Thia article has the details.
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Video Source: good4utah.com
Words like pulmonary embolism can be very scary for patients and families. The price for treatments can sometimes be just as scary. One Utah doctor is gaining national attention for his efforts to ease those fears.
“I live a pretty active lifestyle.”
Danielle Carbajal loves to keep moving.
“Three to four times a week I was working out with a personal trainer,” said Carbajal.
One day she had to stop right in her tracks.
“I actually started having symptoms at the gym,” said Carbajal.
Symptoms with a lot of pain.
“I couldn’t catch my breath, I felt really lightheaded, and I felt like someone was stabbing me in the chest.”
After a day of pain, Danielle decided to go see a doctor.
“I told a co-worker I would be right back. I was going to talk to Dr. Woller for a second and get checked out and I would be back in 15-20 minutes and that didn’t happen.,”
What did happen was a preliminary diagnosis of a pulmonary embolism or blood clot in her lungs. But to make sure, doctors need to perform a CT pulmonary angiograph or a CT scan. It’s an extensive process that can be overwhelming for patients.
“They injected me with I guess the dye, and that was really uncomfortable and it was very very scary,” said Carbajal.
Scary and quite expensive. The proceed cost between 4 and $5,000.
“It was probably the worst experience I’ve ever had in my entire life.”
Now her doctor, Dr. Scott Woller, the director of the Thrombosis program at the Intermountain Medical Center hopes to keep other patients from having similar experiences.
“What we’re really interested in doing is safely refuting this diagnosis in the simplest possible way.”
Dr. Woller’s new research was just published in a national medical journal. He wants to use a simple blood test to rule out pulmonary embolisms in about 20 percent of patients.
This would mean a lot fewer of those scary and costly CT scans without any added risk.
“While the benefit is being able to rule out pulmonary embolism in a larger portion of elderly patients we need to be certain that in doing so we do not inadvertently say Pulmonary Embolism is absent when in fact it exists,” said Wollers.
Danielle just hopes Dr. Woller’s research works out and makes it a little better for the people sitting in a waiting room wondering.
“I think any sort of easier way to diagnose or prevent or to predict would be a benefit to the patient.” said Carbajal.
Dr. Lisa Marie Cannon is board-certified in critical care and pulmonary disease in New Jersey. Visit this blog more health-related articles.
Dr. Lisa Marie Cannon 