Abstract
Background
The diagnosis of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) is usually made by a sonographer using a thorough Doppler ultrasound. The current study examined whether emergency resident physicians could accurately diagnose DVT using a point-of-care, three-point compression protocol.
Methods
The patient population consisted of patients with suspected DVT who presented to the emergency department between 2021 and 2022. All patients underwent a three-point compression ultrasound exam by the emergency resident. Each patient then had a comprehensive whole-leg ultrasonography exam performed by a supervisor emergency specialist. The results of the ultrasound exams by the emergency resident physicians and comprehensive exams were then analyzed and compared.
Results
The average age of the patients was 60,96 ± 16,67. There was a statistically significant difference between three-point compression and whole-leg ultrasound examination data. The negative predictive value of the resident physician was determined as 94%. The coefficient of the compression variable in the Ridge regression analysis for diagnosing DVT in the whole-leg ultrasound examination was obtained as −0.3754.
Conclusions
We think that compression ultrasonography may be sufficient in patient management compared to whole-leg ultrasonography in emergency management. However, we think that three-point compression ultrasonography applied by the emergency resident is quite successful in diagnosing and excluding DVT in the emergency department.
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