Flying check for economy-class syndrome

By MONIQUE DEVEREUX health reporter

One of the world's most comprehensive studies into the link between blood clots and long-distance flying has began with the recruitment of volunteers at Auckland Airport.

The study, led by Green Lane Hospital senior registrar Dr Rodney Hughes, needs information - and blood - from 1000 volunteers making a flight of four hours or more and returning within several weeks.

The project aims to find who is in danger of developing economy-class syndrome, when blood clots form in the veins and travel to the heart or lungs.

A completed British study and an Australian one due to start are not as extensive. They have been based on looking at travellers, usually with a scan of the lungs, only after their flights.

Volunteers in the Auckland study will have to undergo up to three blood tests, before and after their flight, and be available for scans, if required, after their return.

Two days into the recruitment process 50 people have signed up, giving blood and answering a pre-flight questionnaire in the first aid room at Gate 2 of the Jean Batten Terminal.

The study need people who live in either Auckland or Wellington and who do not have a history of blood clots.

"I even got abused by one guy from Tauranga. He wanted to know why he couldn't be involved," said Dr Hughes.

"But it's the logistics of easy access to the volunteers and we're working from Auckland and Wellington."

Volunteers have to fill out questionnaires about their behaviour on their flights - whether they slept the entire way, if they exercised or if they took any preventive medication such as aspirin.

It also asks where they were sitting, if they lay down flat, whether they were in an emergency row or if there was a free seat beside them.

Volunteers are given a booklet to fill out on the plane.

Dr Hughes and his team will be at the airport for the next week recruiting people for the study. He expects the results to be available by December.