Division of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology

Department of Medicine

Hematologist Mary Cushman, M.D., M.Sc., professor of medicine and pathology and laboratory medicine

(MARCH 20, 2023) There are many possible reasons for why knowing your blood type could give clues to your risk of stroke and heart attack, hematologist Mary Cushman, M.D., M.Sc., professor of medicine and pathology and laboratory medicine, told the St. Louis/Southern Illinois Labor Tribune.

“The enzyme that controls blood type has other actions,” Cushman explained. One of these is to modify a protein called von Willebrand factor, which is very important in forming blood clots. “The modifications to the protein are different in different blood types, so people with type O blood have the lowest levels of von Willebrand factor on average and the lowest risk of abnormal clots. Type AB has the highest level and, in some studies, the highest risk of blood clots.”