The patient is being examined by the doctor. Photo: BVCC
According to Doctor Vo Tan Duoc, Department of Cardiology – Gerontology, Le Van Thinh Hospital, the patient is a 37-year-old woman who has 2 children. She has been using oral contraceptives for more than 15 years.
Taking the recorded history, the woman was tired with exertion, shortness of breath, and chest pain for 2 weeks. She went to many doctors but mightn’t find the cause.
At Le Van Thinh Hospital, the patient said that just walking a few steps was unbearable. Conducting an echocardiogram, the doctor noted that she had heart failure, with signs suggesting a pulmonary artery occlusion.
Then, the patient was assigned a chest CT scan with contrast injection to visualize the pulmonary vasculature. The results showed that she had 90% of the pulmonary artery occlusion on both sides.
Doctor Duoc said, the patient was given anticoagulants immediately. After consultation, the doctors decided to use thrombolytic drugs to dissolve blood clots in the patient’s pulmonary artery.
After 3 days of treatment, the patient ceased to be tired and breathless and resumed normal activities. She continued to use intravenous and oral anticoagulants, and her heart failure improved.
According to Doctor Duoc, when determining that the woman under 40 years old had a blood vessel blockage, the doctors searched for all possible causes of the disease. However, the test for hereditary coagulopathy showed no abnormalities, the patient had no history of trauma or suggestive of hematologic pathology, etc. The greatest risk was the daily use of oral contraceptives for more than 15 years. .
Doctor Duoc said that the rate of patients with thromboembolism due to taking oral contraceptives is very low, accounting for 1 in 10,000. Previously, Dr. Du had treated a woman with intracranial venous thrombosis for this cause.
