title: Disease-specific screening for deep venous thrombosis and pulmonary thromboembolism using plasma D-dimer values after total knee arthroplasty.
abstract: We prospectively evaluated the disease-specific features of the early postoperative plasma D: -dimer value and the relationship with deep venous thrombosis and/or pulmonary thromboembolism (DVT/PE) in 95 patients following total knee arthroplasty. Patients in whom DVT/PE was highly suspected were diagnosed by high-resolution multi-detector row computed tomography scanning (MDCT). Forty-nine knees in 46 patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA, 24 knees) or osteoarthritis (OA, 25 knees) were finally recruited. DVT/PE was detected in 28 (57.1%) of the 49 cases examined by diagnostic MDCT: 12 (50.0%) of the 24 cases of RA, and 16 (64.0%) of the 25 cases of OA. Of these, PE was found in 11 cases (39.2%), but none of them showed clinical symptomatic signs of dyspnea or chest pain. In both RA and OA cases, there were statistically significant differences in the D: -dimer value on postoperative day 3 (P = 0.027) and after day 28 (P = 0.037) between the groups with and without DVT/PE. In OA cases, there were significant differences between the two groups on postoperative days 1 (P = 0.034), 3 (P = 0.020), 5 (P = 0.005), and 7 (P = 0.045), respectively. At the baseline, perioperative D: -dimer levels in the RA group without DVT/PE were higher than in the OA group. However, multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that RA was not a significant risk factor of DVT/PE in comparison with OA. In conclusion, individual evaluation of the D: -dimer level between RA and OA should provide a more precise predictive indicator of early postoperative DVT/PE.
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Okayama University Hospital, 2-5-1 Shikata-cho, Okayama 700-8558, Japan.
authors.forename: Teruhito
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yoshitaka
authors.forename: Nobuhiro
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Abe
authors.forename: Hiroshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Minagawa
authors.forename: Hirokazu
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Date
authors.forename: Yoshimasa
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Sakoma
authors.forename: Keiichiro
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nishida
authors.forename: Toshifumi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ozaki
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001172:Arthritis, Rheumatoid / Q000150:complications / Q000601:surgery; D019645:Arthroplasty, Replacement, Knee / Q000009:adverse effects*; D005260:Female; D005338:Fibrin Fibrinogen Degradation Products / Q000032:analysis*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D020370:Osteoarthritis, Knee / Q000150:complications / Q000601:surgery; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011655:Pulmonary Embolism / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology; D012372:ROC Curve; D020246:Venous Thrombosis / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology
chemical_list: D005338:Fibrin Fibrinogen Degradation Products; C036309:fibrin fragment D