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Updated: Mar 11, 2026

Point-Of-Care Ultrasound Screening for Proximal Lower Extremity Deep Venous Thrombosis
Published on: February 10, 2023
[Deep Venous Thrombosis in Emergency Care: From Clinical Suspicion to Correct Diagnosis]
José Vidoedo1, André Cruz, Miguel Maia
1Serviços de Urgência e de Angiologia e Cirurgia Vascular do Centro Hospitalar Tâmega e Sousa e Serviço de Angiologia e Cirurgia Vascular do Centro Hospitalar S. João, Porto, Portugal.
Aim:
Retrospective analysis of suspected deep venous thrombosis (DVT) of the lower limbs admitted to an emergency unit and subsequently scanned in the vascular lab.
Methods:
Clinical and demographic details of patients were retrieved from clinical files and collected in a database. The statistical software SPSS was used for statistical analysis.
Results:
Between January 2011 and September 2013, 407 venous scans were performed for ruling out DVT. Two hundred sixty-nine (66%) patients were female. Average age was 60.1 years-old (16-93). One hundred thirty-four scans (32.9%) were positive for the diagnosis of recent DVT (simultaneous DVT and superficial thrombophlebitis in six patients of this group). In 194 exams (47.6%) there was any sign of venous thrombosis, whether recent or remote. The remaining cases showed up signs of remote DVT in 22 (5.4%) patients, and superficial thrombophlebitis in 50 (12.2%) patients.
Conclusion:
Suspected DVT was confirmed in only a third of patients, using ultrasound scan. Local implementation of guidelines for the evaluation of patients with suspected DVT may reduce the amount of unnecessary scans.
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