AUSTIN, TX In women, hormone therapy is a risk factor for venous thrombosis, a blood clot forming deep inside the vein. Despite the fact that the disorder is rare, it increases exponentially during menopause and can be deadly. The hormone trials conducted thus far, focusing on proteins in blood coagulation, have not yet led to a risk profile, thereby precluding identification of women at risk. Now, a team of Mayo Clinic researchers, led by Virginia Miller, has developed a novel concept that uses blood platelets to define thrombotic risk. The team is testing its theory as part of the Kronos Early Estrogen Prevention Study (KEEPS). Miller is discussing the research at a conference being sponsored by the American Physiological Society (APS).
Millers colleagues are Muthuvel Jayachandran, Kazaumori Kashimoto, John A. Heit and Whyte G. Owen, all with the Department of Surgery, Physiology and Bioengineering, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and Internal Medicine, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Rochester, MN. Their work is entitled Sex Steroids, Platelet Aggregation and Inflammation, and is among the 120 presentations being offered at the conference, Sex and Gender in Cardiovascular-Renal Physiology and Pathophysiology, being held August 9-12, 2007 at the Hyatt Regency Austin on Town Lake, Austin, TX. The event is the second scientific gathering to be sponsored by the American Physiological Society (APS; www.The-APS.org) this year.
A New Approach to Assessing Clot Risk in Menopausal Women
The study focuses on platelets, which are cellular fragments in the blood. Platelets have a phenotype (i.e., a set of physical characteristics) that change and it is known that hormones affect platelet change. The team is examining what happens to platelets in the presence of hormones whether platelet microvesicles occur more frequently as a result, if a change is triggered by infection, and what may accoun
'"/>
Contact: Donna Krupa
dkrupa@the-aps.org
301-634-7253
American Physiological Society
8-Aug-2007