The research on blood-clotting disorders
The number of preventable deaths worldwide from a major traumatic accident is high. In fact it is one of the main causes of death among young people. Around one in four victims in a serious accident turns out to have a blood-clotting disorder. Here the body has difficulty creating blood clots and existing clots are broken down too quickly. This leads to serious bleeding which is difficult to treat. Gaining a better understanding of clotting disorders will help us to save the lives of young people.
‘A trauma patient with a clotting disorder is twice as likely to die than a healthy patient, so we can really make a difference here.’Dr Derek Kleinveld
Physician and researcher Dr Derek Kleinveld and PhD student Pieter Sloos have developed a trailblazing method to learn more about clotting disorders. They are using a laboratory simulation of a trauma situation to explore the relationship between blood platelets and an important enzyme, ADAMTS13. Existing research suggests that this enzyme causes problems during the forming of blood clots. ‘We need to collect much more data to be really certain of our assumptions,’ explains Kleinveld.
The researchers want the data they are gathering for this research from all over the world to offer concrete solutions to problems caused by disorders in acute trauma situations. Your support can help the researchers to gain a better understanding of what goes wrong in the forming of blood clots. The outcome of this kind of fundamental research can eventually form the basis for the development of new drugs and treatments. ‘We hope that this will enable us to reduce the number of preventable deaths following trauma’, says Sloos.
In their laboratory, Kleinveld and Sloos have developed a special method to study all the data. The techniques they are using can also be applied in countless other ways, so they can also contribute to research on other conditions and diseases, such as thrombosis, heart disease and strokes, and COVID-19. The research results can also give insight into other causes of blood loss, such as in childbirth or gastrointestinal bleeding.
As a donor you can contribute to this innovative research. Support Derek Kleinveld and Pieter Sloos, so that doctors are better equipped to provide treatment and save the lives of young people.