Trauma Surgeon Peggy Knudson, MD Leads First Large-scale Investigation of Pulmonary Clots after Injury
The CLOTT (Coalition of Leaders in Thromboembolism) study group, led by trauma surgeon M. Margaret “Peggy” Knudson, M.D., FACS, has begun enrolling patients in a landmark clinical trial looking at the treatment and prevention of post-traumatic pulmonary embolism. The study, which includes investigators at 17 Level 1 trauma centers, is funded by a $4.25M grant from the Defense Medical Research and Development Program (DMRDP).
Dr. Knudson, the study's principal investigator, is a professor of surgery and member of the UCSF Department of Surgery at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital (ZSFG). She also serves as Medical Director for the Military Health System (MHS) Strategic-ACS Partnership. Dr. Knudson describes the study as the first large scale investigation of pulmonary clots after injury, one that has the ability to change how PE patients are cared for and how to prevent the potentially lethal complication.
The National Trauma Institute highlighted some of the key goals of the study:
The group will compare the safety of observation vs. treatment of asymptomatic peripheral pulmonary clots discovered on computed tomography angiography (CTA). Additionally, they aim to define the role of post-injury fibrinolysis shutdown in the development of post-traumatic pulmonary embolism (PE).
Investigators have begun to enroll injured civilian adult patients in the age range of 18-40 years who are at risk for PE. The study will characterize the risk factors for those with symptomatic, central PE versus those with asymptomatic, peripheral thrombi. Five of the trauma centers in the study will analyze blood samples with thromboelastography (TEG) in order to better characterize the failure of clot lysis (fibrinolytic shutdown) in injured patients.
“This will be the first large scale investigation of pulmonary clots after injury and has the ability to change how we care for and prevent this potentially lethal complication." Principal Investigator Peggy Knudson, MD
View full clinical trial abstract (The Pathogenesis of Post-Traumatic Pulmonary Embolism: A Prospective Multi-center Investigation by the CLOTT Study Group)