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There are many ways in which blood clots can affect the body.
Some are obvious and dramatic – for example the leg
vein clot “deep vein thrombosis” (DVT) that has
sometimes been linked with crowded conditions on long haul
flights, hence “economy class syndrome”. In other
patients, especially where internal organs such as the brain
are affected, the condition may be more difficult to diagnose.
In others, the
antibody (the sticky blood ‘tendency’) may be
present without any medical problems having been seen. In
other words, there is a wide variety of clinical pictures
seen with the syndrome.
| Vein thrombosis |
e.g. DVT,
pulmonary embolism ‘Economy Class Syndrome’
or thrombosis on the pill
|
| Artery thrombosis
|
e.g. limb
pain, organ thrombosis
|
| Pregnancy |
recurrent
miscarriage, including early and late pregnancy loss
Infertility
Intra uterine growth retardation
|
|
Brain |
headache
and migraine
stroke and
TIA
memory loss
balance
disorder (and sometimes hearing impairment)
seizures
‘atypical’
multiple sclerosis
speech disturbance
movement
disorder, including Chorea (St Vitus dance)
absences
severe dementia
(rare: untreated cases) |
|
Heart and
lungs
|
heart attacks,
murmurs
lung thrombosis
(pulmonary embolism)
shortness
of breath
pulmonary
hypertension (raised pressure)
valve failure
(rare)
angina |
|
Eye |
sudden visual
loss (clots around the eye)
loss of
part of field of vision
Dry eyes
(Sjogrens’s Syndrome) |
|
Skin |
'blotchy'
circulation (‘livedo’)
skin ulcers
and nodules
cold circulation |
Kidney
|
thrombosis
in artery or vein
raised blood
pressure |
| Liver |
liver thrombosis
|
| Blood |
low platelets
counts |
| General |
fatigue
aches and
pains
'Catastrophic'
APS (widespread
sudden thrombosis) |
For further
information, please refer to the book: A Patients Guide, written
by Dr Graham Hughes which can be purchased from our publications
page.
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