Weekly discussion – cardiovascular system

Since we’re covering the cardiovascular system this week, I thought this article about treatments for thromboembolism would make for interesting discussion. The first article is a press release intended for a medically-literate audience. It’s based on the peer-reviewed study in JAMA (second link). You don’t need to read the whole JAMA article — just refer to the abstract. If you like you can read more for your own interest.

Study compares effectiveness of treatments for blood clots (Links to an external site.)
Medical News Today, September 16, 2014

Clinical and Safety Outcomes Associated With Treatment of Acute Venous Thromboembolism: (Links to an external site.) A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis
Journal of the American Medical Association, September 17, 2014

For your initial post, you should be using your textbook and the article above as your primary sources to answer the questions below. The purpose of this first post is to apply the information that you’re practicing from your learning objectives. Later, in the comments, I will expect you to do a bit of research online and support your comments with evidence, but in your initial post please stick to your textbook and the article(s).

Please address each of the following points, demonstrating your understanding of the related learning objectives from this module:

• What is a thromboembolism? Which formed element(s) in the blood contribute to their formation?
• Examine the abstract of the JAMA article. Why do you think the 8 treatments being tested had bleeding as a major side effect?
• Deep venous thromboses (Links to an external site.) (DVTs) are associated with long period of inactivity, such as sitting on an airplane. Pulmonary embolisms (PE) can result when fragments of the clots in a DVT break off and travel to the lungs. Why would such clots often end up in the lungs instead of some other organ? Hint: think about the path through the two cardiovascular circuits.
• Patients with PE may present with low blood oxygen levels. How can you explain this finding?