In a significant development, doctors of Sir Ganga Ram Hospital (SGRH) have discovered world’s first Genetic Bleeding Risk Score (GBRS) to help determine the dosage of the common drugs to be given to the patient. The breakthrough came after a study conducted on 310 patients suffering from anticoagulant bleeding.
“Commonly used drugs to treat blood clotting have been the reason for further bleeding complications. These drugs act as thinners to blood and sometimes cause the arteries to burst resulting in uncontrollable bleeding in the body. Our research says this is not entirely the fault of the drug, but it largely depends on the genes in one’s body. Based on the genes in one’s body, the dosage of the drugs has to be decided. In this, GBRS will help us,” said a senior doctor of SGRH.
The most commonly used drugs to treat Thrombosis are Warfarin or Acitrom. Several hospital-based studies in India and the world have ranked anticoagulant-induced bleeding as the most common cause of 5 per cent to 6.9 per cent hospital admissions that occur due to adverse drug reactions, said experts.
“A large number of people get admitted in hospitals complaining of thrombosis, but do not get fit after the treatment as the drugs used to eradicate blood clots causes further bleeding. The study adds new knowledge with regards to important genetic and non-genetic predictors of bleeding risk. Integration of these bleeding predictors in the routine anticoagulation management could help use the proper doses in high-risk patients. This can effectively reduce the number of bleeding episodes, thus sparing the patients from adverse outcomes and reducing hospital admissions,” said Dr IC Verma, Director, Centre of Medical Genetics, SGRH.
The study was conducted on patients from Departments of Vascular Surgery , Cardiac Surgery and Neurology from August 2009 to August 2012 at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital in the Capital after approval from Ethics Board Committee of SGRH and is in accordance with the ethical standards of Declaration of Helsinki (World Medical Association ), informed Sehgal.