How do other heart and blood vessel conditions affect my risk of vein disease?
Some types of heart and blood vessel increase your risk of developing blood clots in the deep veins of the legs (deep vein thrombosis, or DVT) that can travel to the lungs, causing a potentially deadly pulmonary embolism. Women with heart failure, a weakened heart that cannot pump blood effectively, are at increased risk for developing blood clots because blood does not move as quickly through the body, and tends to pool in one place. Slow-moving blood is more likely to form clots. Women with heart failure have a 40% higher-than normal risk of DVT, and more than twice the normal risk of pulmonary embolism.1 One treatment for heart valve disease is a unique contributor to blood clot risk. Heart valve disease occurs when the valves that open and close to let blood in and out of the heart are damaged and no longer work properly. A woman with severe valve disease may have her natural valves replaced with prosthetic ones. Having a foreign object in the bloodstream (the prosthetic valve) mak
