Birmingham women with "sticky blood" syndrome involved in national clinical trial
UP to 50 women from Birmingham are to be recruited onto a five-year clinical trial into a rare disease that causes thrombosis and recurrent miscarriage.
Around 37,500 women in the UK suffer from the condition, called antiphospholipid syndrome or APS. Fifteen per cent of all women who have recurrent miscarriages have the APS antibodies. Three out of ten women who suffer from the serious rheumatic condition, lupus, also have APS.
Patients with APS have "sticky blood," which leads to an increased risk of thrombosis - clotting - in the veins and arteries. Among pregnant women, the syndrome can also lead to numerous miscarriage, unless it is treated. The blood becomes too thick to flow through the body's small blood vessels to the placenta, causing it to wither, and the foetus to abort.
Dr Caroline Gordon, a consultant rheumatologist based at the University of Birmingham, will lead the local arm of the national trial, which is being funded by a £386,000 grant from the Arthritis Research Campaign.
She and her team will test the effectiveness of combination drug therapy (low dose warfarin and aspirin) which they hope will effectively reduce incidence of all forms of thrombosis, including heart attacks, stroke, deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism.
Women with APS wanting to discuss their suitability for this trial would need to be referred by their GP to Dr Gordon's clinics at Queen Elizabeth Hospital (University Hospital Birmingham NHS Trust) or City Hospital (Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust) in Birmingham.
To be considered for the trial women must have lupus or had at least three miscarriages, and have evidence of sticky blood (anti-phospholipid antibodies) on blood testing, but they must not be planning pregnancy in the next five years. Around 1, 000 women in centres throughout the UK and Europe are expected to take part in the trial over the next five years.
Current treatment for antiphospholipid syndrome in people without blood clots (thrombosis) is low dose aspirin to prevent thrombosis, and a combination of heparin and aspirin to prevent miscarriage in pregnancy. Warfarin has been shown to be successful in other conditions connected to thrombosis such as breast cancer and heart attacks. Some doctors now believe that combination drug therapy can be developed to provide a more effective barrier against thrombosis,
"From the limited data available, and from our own experience over the past 15 years, we've come to the conclusion that aspirin alone is not enough, and we would like to prove that aspirin plus low intensity warfarin is more effective,"explained Dr Munther Khamashta of St Thomas's Hospital in London who is leading the trial.
