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General Practitioner-Performed Compression Ultrasonography for Diagnosis of Deep Vein Thrombosis of the Leg: A Multicenter, Prospective Cohort Study. | LitMetric
Department of Internal Medicine, Ospedale Civile di Livorno, Livorno, Italy (Mumoli, Cei, Camaiti, Palmiero); Department of Internal Medicine, Ospedale Beata Vergine di Mendrisio, Ticino, Switzerland (Vitale); Emergency Department, Ospedale della Val d'Arda, Piacenza, Italy (Giorgi-Pierfranceschi); Primary Ambulatory Care, Livorno, Italy (Sabatini); Primary Care, Porto Santo Stefano, Grosseto, Italy (Tulino); Department of Vascular Medicine, ASL Di Romagna, Ravenna, Italy (Bucherini); Department of Internal Medicine, Azienda Ospedaliera, Cosenza, Italy (Bova); Angiology Unit, ASL 1 Avezzano Sulmona L'Aquila, Avezzano (AQ), Italy (Mastroiacovo); Primary Ambulatory Care, Pisa, Italy (Puccetti); Department of Internal Medicine, Ospedale di Circolo, Varese, Varese, Italy (Dentali).
Published: November 2017
AI Article Synopsis
Article Abstract
Background: Patients with suspected deep vein thrombosis (DVT) of the lower limb represent a diagnostic dilemma for general practitioners. Compression ultrasonography (US) is universally recognized as the best test of choice. We assessed the diagnostic accuracy of compression US performed by general practitioners given short training in the management of symptomatic proximal DVT.
Methods: From May 2014 to May 2016, we evaluated in a multicenter, prospective cohort study all consecutive outpatients with suspected DVT; bilateral proximal lower limb compression US was performed by general practitioners and by physicians expert in vascular US, each group blinded to the other's findings. In all examinations with a negative or nondiagnostic result, compression US was repeated by the same operator after 5 to 7 days. Inter-observer agreement and accuracy were calculated.
Results: We enrolled a total of 1,107 patients. The expert physicians diagnosed DVT in 200 patients, corresponding to an overall prevalence of 18.1% (95% CI, 15.8%-20.3%). The agreement between the trained general practitioners and the experts was excellent (Cohen κ = 0.86; 95% CI, 0.84-0.88). Compression US performed by general practitioners had a sensitivity of 90.0% (95% CI, 88.2%-91.8%) and a specificity of 97.1% (95% CI, 96.2%-98.1%) with a diagnostic accuracy for DVT of 95.8% (95% CI, 94.7%-97.0%).
Conclusions: Our results suggest that, even in hands of physicians not expert in vascular US, compression US can be a reliable tool in the diagnosis of DVT. We found that the sensitivity achieved by general practitioners appeared suboptimal, however, so future studies should evaluate the implementation of proper training strategies to maximize skill.
