Blood poisoning may increase a person's risk of suffering a blood clot, a new study has found.
Every year, almost 10,000 Danes are admitted to hospital with blood poisoning, while more than 3,000 patients become infected while they are hospitalised, researchers said.
"We have followed more than 4,000 people who have been admitted with blood poisoning," said Michael Dalager-Pedersen, PhD student at Aarhus University.
"The study shows that the risk of suffering a blood clot in either the brain or the heart is twice as high for patients with blood poisoning in relation to other patients who are also admitted with acute illnesses," he said.
The risk of a blood clot was highest within the first 30 days after the infection, where the risk was 3.6 per cent against 1.7 per cent for the other acutely admitted patients, and only 0.2 per cent among the population in general, researchers said.
In recent years there has been a growing level of interest for the correlation between the risk of blood clots and infections such as blood poisoning.
The researchers hope that the new knowledge can be utilised to ensure better prevention and earlier treatment.
"It is important that we have now documented that there is a clear correlation between blood poisoning and blood clots. The new knowledge can be used by the medical doctors to increase focus on this patient group so they can begin relevant treatment quicker," said Reimar Wernich Thomsen from the Department of Clinical Epidemiology at Aarhus University and Aarhus University Hospital.
Thomsen said the correlation may, among other things, be due to the fact that the blood clots arise due to the increased strain on the heart and blood vessels that the infection causes.
The study was published in the journal Circulation.
