Vedantham-led team honored for clinical research
Work showed most clots don’t need to be treated with clot-busting drugs
Huy Mach/Gaia RemerowskiSuresh Vedantham, MD, a professor of radiology and of surgery at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, and a team of clinical trial investigators have been recognized with a 2018 Top 10 Clinical Research Achievement Award from the Clinical Research Forum. They were honored for their work on the ATTRACT trial, a multicenter trial that aimed to determine whether routinely removing blood clots from the legs with drugs and specialized devices can prevent long-term complications.
Suresh Vedantham, MD, a professor of radiology at Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, and a team of clinical trial investigators have been recognized with a 2018 Top 10 Clinical Research Achievement Award from the Clinical Research Forum.
Vedantham, also a professor of surgery, led the Acute Venous Thrombosis: Thrombus Removal with Adjunctive Catheter-Directed Thrombolysis (ATTRACT) study, a large, multicenter randomized control trial that aimed to determine whether routinely removing blood clots from the legs with drugs and specialized devices can prevent serious and painful long-term complications. The answer, it turned out, was no. The treatment raised the chance of dangerous bleeds but did little to prevent the complication. Vedantham and colleagues recommended against clot removal as a first-line treatment for most patients with blood clots, although they continue to analyze the study data to determine whether some subgroups of patients may benefit. The findings were published in The New England Journal of Medicine in December 2017.
The Top 10 Clinical Research Achievement Awards honor outstanding accomplishments and major advances resulting from investment in research to benefit the health and welfare of patients. Vedantham, who is also a professor of surgery and the assistant dean for clinical research at the School of Medicine, accepted the award on behalf of himself and his colleagues April 18 at the Translational Science conference in Washington. Co-authors on the publication include fellow faculty and staff members Lawrence Lewis, MD, James R. Duncan, MD, PhD, Patricia Nieters, Mary Clare Derfler, Nael Saad, MD, and Morey Blinder, MD.
