What is antithrombin deficiency?

What is antithrombin deficiency?

Antithrombin deficiency (or antithrombin III deficiency) is a blood clotting disorder that makes you more likely to get abnormal blood clots. People with this problem are at a high risk for deep vein thrombosis (a blood clot in any deep vein of the body) and pulmonary embolism (a clot that ends up in your lungs).

Antithrombin helps keep your blood from clotting excessively. When your antithrombin isn’t working right, clotting can keep going without antithrombin stopping it. When you don’t have enough antithrombin, it’s like starting to fill a bathtub with water and then walking away. Someone needs to be there to turn the water off to keep the bathtub from overflowing, just like the antithrombin needs to stop the clotting before it goes on too long.