title: Can plasma D-dimer predict the result of a ventilation-perfusion scan?
abstract: The use of plasma D-dimer assay has been advocated for the exclusion of pulmonary embolism. We retrospectively looked at 840 patients in whom both ventilation-perfusion scan and D-dimer assay were performed within 48 h. The negative predictive value of a negative D-dimer assay was 96% for emergency admissions and 98% for inpatients. We present the cases of two patients with negative D-dimer assay results who had a high-probability lung scan, and we have found a further three patients with negative D-dimer assay results who had an intermediate-probability lung scan.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nuclear Medicine, Derriford Hospital, Plymouth, UK. thomas.gruning@phnt.swest.nhs.uk <thomas.gruning@phnt.swest.nhs.uk>
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Grüning
authors.forename: Mehrdad
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Khonsari
authors.forename: Gillian C
authors.initials: GC
authors.lastname: Vivian
authors.forename: Tim
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nokes
mesh_terms: D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood; D005260:Female; D005338:Fibrin Fibrinogen Degradation Products / Q000032:analysis*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015588:Observer Variation; D055420:Perfusion Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D011655:Pulmonary Embolism / Q000097:blood* / Q000175:diagnosis*; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D013668:Technetium Tc 99m Aggregated Albumin; D014692:Ventilation-Perfusion Ratio
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D005338:Fibrin Fibrinogen Degradation Products; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D013668:Technetium Tc 99m Aggregated Albumin; C036309:fibrin fragment D