Thrombophlebitis: Diagnostic Techniques

Abstract

A review of the extensive literature on the diagnosis of deep vein throm bophlebitis (DVT) is presented. DVT affects approximately 10% of all patients with superficial thrombophlebitis. Many authors have shown that the clinical findings of DVT are unreliable. Although pulmonary emboli are relatively fre quent in all patients with calf DVT, these emboli are generally not associated with clinical events. Venography is the "gold standard" of diagnostic tests, but it is too cumbersone to be practical as a screening procedure. Radioisotope-la beled fibrinogen is reasonably accurate in diagnosing calf DVT, but much less so in proximal lesions. The results of Doppler ultrasound and impedance pleth ysmography (IPG) agree with those of venography in 90% of the cases of proxi mal DVT.