A cramp or a clot? How to tell if your leg pain is serious

A cramp or a clot? How to tell if your leg pain is serious

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SALT LAKE CITY — According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, estimates say that 350,000 to 600,000 Americans each year suffer from deep vein thrombosis, and at least 100,000 deaths are directly or indirectly related to DVT.

However, DVT is often the hard to recognize.

DVT, the formation of one or more blood clots in the larger veins most commonly in the lower limbs such as the calf or lower leg, usually feels like nothing more than a leg cramp.

The director of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute explained that DVT is hard to recognize because it does not typically give off any signs or symptoms. "The Surgeon General’s Call to Action to Prevent Deep Vein Thrombosis and Pulmonary Embolism" explains that only about half of the DVT episodes show any symptoms.

Some patients suffer from acute episodes with symptoms that pass once the DVT is diagnosed and treated. Thirty percent of patients suffer from additional symptoms, such as leg pain, swelling, recurrent breakdown of skin or ulcers. The partial or complete blockage of blood circulation in the lower limbs can also lead to discoloration, tenderness or redness in the affected area or warmth to the touch of the affected area.

However, only a small percentage of the patients show any of these symptoms.

Christine Pulfrey, a writer and editor of The Atlantic based in Washington D.C., wrote about her story of what she thought was just a cramp.

After sitting in Starbucks working for a long period of time, being on a long flight and then going for a long and hard run, her calves cramped up. The pain in one of the calves eventually subsided, but the pain in the other continued.


One website after another said generally the same thing: A deep vein thrombosis, or blood clot, can closely resemble a leg cramp or a muscle tear. My stomach clenched.

–Christine Pulfrey


She treated it as if it were a regular cramp, elevating her leg and icing it consistently. When the pain would not go away, she started looking around online to find some answers.

Pulfrey explained in her article, “One website after another said generally the same thing: A deep vein thrombosis, or blood clot, can closely resemble a leg cramp or a muscle tear. My stomach clenched.”

Pulfrey went to the doctor, and the doctor diagnosed her cramp as DVT.

DVT in and of itself is not deadly, however it can lead to more serious and deadly complications. The National Center for Health Statistics reported that DVT is usually the underlying cause of death.

DVT could lead to pulmonary embolism, which occurs when a portion of the DVT blood clot breaks off and travels through the bloodstream first to the heart and then to the lungs where it can lodge in a smaller pulmonary artery. This can lead to shortness of breath, rapid heartbeat, sweating, sharp chest pain, coughing up blood, or dangerously low blood pressure which can result in passing out.

One-third of DVT episodes lead to PE, and PE is typically the cause of the most deaths.

In May 2006, the Surgeon General hosted a meeting about DVT, which led to the compiling of the book “Surgeon General’s Call to Action.” The Surgeon General explained that in order to prevent DVT and PE, more people need to be aware and informed of the things that raise risk of developing DVT or PE, the signs and symptoms and how to treat and diagnose DVT/PE.

He explained, “The goal is to raise awareness among patients and family members and empower them to ask their physicians about preventive treatment during hospitalization, after a traumatic event, or in other high-risk situations.” Kailey McBride is a student at BYU-Idaho with a major in English and an emphasis in professional writing. Email: mcbridekailey@yahoo.com.

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