WEDNESDAY, Aug. 21, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- An experimental genetic test can gauge a person’s risk of developing potentially deadly blood clots, researchers report. People who scored high on the test had more than double the rate of heart attack , stroke and major amputation after they underwent a procedure to reopen blocked arteries in their legs, results showed.
The test assesses whether a person’s platelets are “hyperreactive,” and thus prone to abnormal clotting that blocks arteries, according to the report published Aug. 20 in the journal Nature Communications . “Our results demonstrate that our new platelet-centric scoring system can .
.. reliably predict platelet hyperreactivity and the related risk of cardiovascular events,” said researcher Dr.
Jeffrey Berger , director of the Center for the Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease at NYU Grossman School of Medicine in New York City. The platelet score can detect hyperreactivity in apparently healthy patients as well as in sick people on the verge of a heart attack, researchers said. “Physicians currently prescribe aspirin, a medication that counters platelet activity, to patients based on available risk factors, including high cholesterol or high blood pressure, which are not directly related to platelet function,” Berger explained in an NYU news release.
However, aspirin comes with its own risks, increasing a person’s odds of dangerous bleeding, the researchers noted. The new test “promises to help p.