[Color Doppler and phlebography in the Paget-Schroetter syndrome]

The authors compared the adequacy of phlebography and color-Doppler US in the diagnosis of subclavian-axillary thrombosis, or Paget-Schroetter syndrome. Ten patients with subclavian-axillary thrombosis (8 men and 2 women, aged 16 to 55 years, mean age: 30 years) were examined over a two-year period. All of them underwent color-Doppler US and conventional phlebography in the same session. US findings were in agreement with phlebographic results in all cases as to thrombosis presence and site. The thrombosis involved the subclavian-axillary vein in 8 cases, the subclavian-innominate vein in 1 case and both veins in 1 case. Color-Doppler US, however, yielded no information relative to the superior vena cava; these data were always obtained with phlebography even though in 4 cases that segment had to be studied with phlebographic opacification via contralateral route. Furthermore, US failed to clearly demonstrate the thrombosis involving the last axillary valve; preserving this valve is indeed the main aim of fibrinolysis since its integrity, at this level, prevents venous reflux independent of subclavian-axillary trunk recanalization, thus reducing the severe symptomatologic sequelae following postphlebitic damage. Phlebography showed the valve and its possible involvement in all cases. In 4 cases phlebography also demonstrated compressive thoracic inlet syndrome, which had been missed by US, yielding the main anatomic elements for following surgery. To conclude, the authors suggest noninvasive color-Doppler US as the screening method of choice, while phlebography remains the gold-standard technique to be performed in all Doppler positive cases: in fact, the latter method yields more pieces of information and is more panoramic than the former, besides allowing fibrinolysis effects to be studied and the possible presence of an associated thoracic inlet syndrome to be investigated.