Some methods are painful, some aren't very accurate. A new technique called AcuTect is under production that may solve both problems. Made by Diatide Inc., it can distinguish between new, dangerous clots and old, benign ones, the company asserts. The technique involves injecting patients with a peptide molecule that enters the bloodstream and attaches to the platelets in fresh clots.
Doctors use imaging techniques to monitor where the peptide goes.
However, the committee also called for more studies of AcuTect's accuracy and reliability and for an assessment of how best to use the technique. Now doctors on the lookout for active clots must use imaging techniques such as venography, a painful procedure which involves injecting a radioactive dye into patients' veins, ultrasound, or magnetic resonance imaging. To dissolve clots that cause deep vein thrombosis, patients take anticoagulant drugs. If such clots remain untreated, they can be fatal. It may be useful in patients with chronic DVT and possibly superimposed thrombus.