Can pesticides or hydrocarbons cause blood clots in the lung?

[jbarbjchemist]

My Mom was diagnosed with multiple blood clots in both lungs.  They have ruled out clots coming from her legs and going to the lungs.  Recently, she sprayed her house with Ortho Home Defense which contains bifenthrin as the pesticide and the MSDS sheet indicates that the inert ingredients include petroleum distillates.  Could either of these things cause venous damage to the lungs and thereby cause the blood clots there?  What else can cause blood clots to form in the lungs?

[National Jewish]

Pyrethrins are a class of chemicals that are made from chrysanthemums.  They are used as insecticides.  The health effects can include a skin rash, breathing difficulty, and rarely hypersensitivity pneumonitis (HP).  HP is swelling of the air sacs of the lungs.  This is caused by an allergic reaction to inhaled organic dusts, animal or plant proteins, microorganisms, or chemicals.  People who are allergic to ragweed are most likely to have these problems.  There are no reports that these chemicals can cause venous damage in the lungs or blood clots.

Insecticides containing synthetic pyrethroids such as bifenthrin are less likely to cause allergic reactions than insecticides containing pyrethrins.  So the Ortho Home Defense that your mom used is less likely to cause the health problems listed above.  However it can cause numbness and tingling after direct contact.  Typically, this begins several hours after exposure to the skin and gets worse before it goes away the next day.

Pulmonary embolism (PE) is a blood clot in an artery of the lungs.  The most common place for the clot to travel from is a vein in the legs.  However the clot could also come from a vein in the pelvis, the arm, the shoulder, or even the heart.  Blood clotting problems can also cause blood clots to form in the lungs.  Some people do not have any symptoms.  Other people will breathe faster, feel chest discomfort, and/or be more short of breath.  A radiology test called a ventilation perfusion scan is most commonly used to identify the problem.  Sometimes pulmonary arteriography is used.  Oxygen is given when the level in the blood is low.  Generally blood clots are treated with medicine, but in some cases surgery may be used.

[ccctalks]

Have they checked your mom's blood for a protein deficiency?  There is an uncommon blood disorder call Protein C Deficiency that will cause multiple clots in the lungs if not diagnosed and treated.  I was found to have this back in 1984 when clusters of clots were found in my lungs.  They had no idea where they came from and put me in the hospital for a month and then on Coumadin (blood thinner) when I was released.  It was until a year and a half later that a new doctor I began seeing ordered this specific blood test and found it.  It is supposedly genetic though we know of no one else in my family who has it.  It was explained to me that though I was born with it, it was probably my birth control plls that actually triggered it.  There is also a deficiency in protein S that she could be checked for, but C is the most common.  It's not normal for someone to 'suddenly' get clots in their lungs, so I would ask for a blood test to check for protein deficiencies.  By the way, this will not show up in routine blood work, so unless they do a special test to look for this in particular, it will be missed.

Hope she is better soon.

[jbarbjchemist]

Dear Abby,
Thanks for the heads up.  I will keep it in mind.  Now today they think the clots did come from her leg.  The initial sonogram showed no existing clots but the ultrasound showed that there had been one in her thigh.  Coumadin should be fun for my Mom.  What do you know about decaf coffee and caffeine in general when it comes to coumadin?  So far, it looks like it won't interfere with the coumadin levels, just that Vitamin K can.

[ccctalks]

I've been taking coumadin since 1984 and have never had a problem with anything interacting with it.  Yes, they do say vitamin K could interfere, and you'll find vitamin K in shellfish (shrimp, lobster, crab, all the foods I love) and broccoli, but you know, I've never not eaten any of these things because of my blood.  A shrimp dinner isn't going to land me in the hospital, so I eat it when I want and I've never had a problem.  There is no link betwen coffee and coumadin so I don't understand why that was even mentioned.  The only thing your mom really has to be careful of is no aspirin.  They'll also go one step further and say no Advil, but I take it with no ill affects at all.  It's just because Advil is an anti-inflammatory and can interfere, but that's mainly for prescription anti-inflammatory meds, not so much for over the counter ones.  When you first start taking coumadin, yes it's a constant worry because it's new territory and you're scared to do or take ANYthing, as with anything unfamiliar.  But I do nothing different now than I did before.  As long as your mom reads labels and asks questions when she's not sure about something over the counter, she'll be fine.