title: Deep venous thrombosis: diagnosis in spinal cord injured patients.
abstract: Because the acute spinal cord injured patient is at high risk for the development of deep venous thrombosis (DVT), accurate diagnosis is critical. Clinical evaluation is unreliable 50% of the time, however, and the two highly accurate diagnostic procedures--venography and 125I-labelled fibrinogen scanning--are invasive and present serious drawbacks. The literature concerning the effectiveness of the two most widely used noninvasive diagnostic alternatives (Doppler ultrasound and venous occlusion plethysmography [VOP]) is equivocal. In our systematic evaluation of a series of 21 patients, using clinical examination, Doppler ultrasound and VOP, all patients who developed DVT were identified by all three methods. Overall accuracy, sensitivity and specificity were 100%.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005188:False Negative Reactions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010808:Physical Examination; D010992:Plethysmography, Impedance; D013119:Spinal Cord Injuries / Q000150:complications*; D013924:Thrombophlebitis / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology; D014463:Ultrasonography