Statins, the class of drugs commonly used for lowering cholesterol, are now showing promise at preventing deep vein thrombosis (DVT) or blood clots, an affliction that occurs in nearly 2 million Americans each year.

Fewer than 1 in 5 patients received post-discharge therapy to prevent life-threatening blood clots — venous thrombosis — after hip- or knee-replacement surgery, report Rahme and colleagues in a retrospective cohort study. Venous thrombosis is one of the leading causes of death among hospital patients. However, elderly patients have a 70% lower chance of dying within 3 months if they take an anticoagulant drug to prevent blood clots.

Blood clots can save lives, staunching blood loss after injury, but they can also kill. Let loose in the bloodstream, a clot can cause a heart attack, stroke or pulmonary embolism.

Patients who develop a blood clot in their legs (deep vein thrombosis) or lungs (pulmonary embolism) are at risk for experiencing another blood clot within three years, and patients with pulmonary embolism have a higher risk of death, according to a report in the February 25 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

U.S. researchers found out that patients who were given the blood-clot preventer Plavix after a heart attack or after receiving a stent have a far higher risk of heart attack or death in the three months after they stop taking the drug.

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine have identified a new molecular target in blood clot formation, which seems to reduce clotting without excessive bleeding, the common side-effect of anti-clotting agents.

Up to 25,000 people may die needlessly each year due to the failure to prevent blood clots known as venous thromboembolisms (VTE) in UK hospitals, say experts in this week's BMJ.