[IP] Study: 1%+ of long haul air travelers get clots
http://www.cnn.com/2003/HEALTH/conditions/12/19/travel.clots.reut/index.html
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Study: 1 in 100 long-haul fliers may get blood clots
LONDON, England (Reuters) --Up to one in 100 long-haul fliers could develop
blood clots, and wearing compression stockings, taking aspirin and
travelling business class may not help, a study showed on Friday.
New Zealand researchers tested almost 900 passengers who took long-haul
flights over a six-week period. The subjects travelled for at least 10
hours a flight and each flew an average of 39 hours over the course of the
study.
They discovered nine cases -- four of pulmonary embolism and five of deep
vein thrombosis (DVT), which involves the formation of blood clots which
can cause death if they invade the lungs or brain.
Seventeen percent of the passengers in the study by the Medical Research
Institute of New Zealand wore compression stockings to aid circulation.
Thirty-one percent took aspirin to thin the blood and reduce the risk of
thrombosis.
The team, whose report was carried in The Lancet medical journal, said all
air travellers were at risk, not just those in economy class.
"As a result, our findings lend support to the recommendation that the term
'economy class syndrome' should be avoided with the disorder renamed
'traveller's thrombosis."'
The New Zealand team concluded that their findings may err on the side of
conservative estimates.
During recent court action, victims have blamed cramped aircraft cabins for
their blood clots and argued that airlines have known of the risks for
years but failed to warn people.
But a British court agreed with the airlines, which claimed that DVT was
not an accident under the 1929 Warsaw Convention that governs international
air travel.
DVT made international headlines and airlines came under pressure to do
more to prevent the condition after a 28-year-old British woman died from
the condition about three years ago after a 20-hour flight from Australia
to London.
Copyright 2003 <http://www.cnn.com/interactive_legal.html#Reuters>Reuters.
All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast,
rewritten, or redistributed.
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