Pulmonary Embolism Support Group

By far the most common form of pulmonary embolism is a thromboembolism, which occurs when a blood clot, generally a venous thrombus, becomes dislodged from its site of formation and embolizes to the arterial blood supply of one of the lungs. Symptoms may include difficulty breathing, pain during breathing, and more rarely circulatory instability and death.

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Factor V Leiden

magnus33
magnus33
Hospitals scare me sometimes..lol.

Had a Dvt and then PE's after knee surgery.

This was four years ago now and if i so much as say chest pain or cough its check him for blood clots.

As you can imagine i gotten familer with the inside or a xray room and cat-scan machine...lol.

The one question that's come up is have i been checked for Factor V Leiden.

Irony is that i don't know since the hospital never mentioned any results for that.
After four years i been asked a lot so you think they would have tested for it and told me the results.

Turns out they never did even when they where testing me for signs of clotting.

So here iam years after waiting for the next time i have to go to the hospital (not anytime so i hope) so i can ask them to test me..lol.
deleted_user
deleted_user
Problem is, as long as you are on Coumadin those hyper-coagulant tests aren't fail-safe. You would have to be off Coumadin with an INR of 1 (they can bridge you with Lovenox) before those tests can be considered to have valid results.
RetiredNavy02
RetiredNavy02
Most thrombophilia tests "can" be done while on Coumadin, however, Protein C and Protein S would have to wait until you have been off coumadin for at least 14 days.

Lupus Anticoagulant can be negative when the patient is on heparin. Also, it has been known to give a false negative when on Coumadin. This is dependent on which test kit the physician uses.

Here is an article regarding what thrombophilia's to test for by my organization:

http://clotconnect.wordpress.com/2010/11/19/thrombophilia-testing-%e2%80%93-who-should-be-tested/

Here is also an article by the same doctor found on the fvleiden.org website:

http://fvleiden.org/ask/49.html

Regards,
Tom
More2be
More2be
According to my hematologist, Factor V Leiden and 20210 (Factor II) mutations CAN be checked while on Warfarin. Those are genetic conditions and if the test is done by a genetic testing lab then Warfarin does not interfere. Such testing is expensive, however. Between the insurance company and myself it came to $400.
deleted_user
deleted_user
I am still waiting to see a Hematologist so I can find out exactly what I have. I just know it is a Genetic Mutation. I hoping to find out more then. It is boggling my mind of what I could have and how I could have gotten it. No one else in my family has had blood clots that we are aware of.
LauraLu
LauraLu
Bttflykitten - I'll bet ya it's Factor V Leiden - that's the most common genetic cause and you inherited it from your mom or dad or both. But lots of people have FVL without ever having a blood clot. The only way to tell is by blood test, and that's only been since 1994 or so.
Lots of people also have one mutated gene and some, like Tom and I, have both mutated genes, so we're at greater risk of clotting. Make sure to find out from your hematologist if it's FVL, do you have ONE or TWO mutated genes (called heterozygous for 1 bum gene or homozygous for 2 bum genes). Because that can be a factor in your treatment going forward.
TossNTurn
TossNTurn
Of course, you may not have anything genetic that they can test for.

I've had three clotting episodes and two complete rounds of tests with a hemo. So far, I'm negative for everything. Maybe someday, they'll discover something new ad then they can test me for that. I dunno.
deleted_user
deleted_user
Some of the hyper-coagulation tests can be done on warferin, but my hematologist says he only wants to see results when I've been 10 days coumadin free. I just finished my 6 month course. However tests ran on admission show I have no hyper-coagulation issues genetic or otherwise. But its protocol to rerun the tests at the end of the 6 month treatment period...so they tell me. I go to the National Naval Medical Center and of course they can run as many tests as they want and I don't pay. So I'm getting the works.