Indium-labelled platelet imaging of postoperative pelvic vein thrombi

Thrombosis of the pelvic veins remains a presumptive clinical diagnosis due to the lack of an accurate method of detection. The authors have evaluated the effectiveness of imaging indium 111-labeled platelets aggregated in pelvic vein thrombi after extended pelvic surgery in dogs. In all instances the thrombus imaged on the gamma scan correlated with a thrombus documented by venography and by postmortem dissection. Detection of the thrombi is attributed to the increased radioactivity of the incorporated platelets in the thrombus, compared to other tissues adjacent to the pelvic veins. From the authors' experience in a dog model it appears that indium 111-labeled platelet imaging is a satisfactory technique for the diagnosis of postoperative pelvic vein thrombosis.