To investigate the ultrasound imaging appearance and clinical characteristic of deep venous thrombosis (DVT) after cesarean section
to improve the diagnostic level of ultrasonography.
Methods:
Ultrasonographic images and clinical characteristic including disease features
lower extremity symptoms and the change of D-dimer of patients with DVT after cesarean section were retrospectively reviewed.
Results:
There were 63 cases of DVT diagnosed by ultrasonography
mainly involving the left lo
wer extremity was 74.6%
and muscular calf vein thrombosis was 93.6%; DVT occurred commonly in orderly pregnant women after cesarean section
and most of them were complicated with other risk factors
about 82.5% of the patients had more than two risk factors. The main ultrasound features commonly appeared as follows: there were thrombus of various sizes in the venous lumen
showing weak echoes or hypo-echoes
vascular lumen could not be completely closed by probe compressed
and color Doppler flow imaging (CDFI) showed there was no-flow signal. There were 45 cases D-dimer level increased
among which 35 cases (77.8%) had abnormal variation of serum D-dimer levels (a slow decrease or an increase trend). Among the 63 cases
51(81.0%) cases had main clinical symptoms and signs such as swelling
pain or positive Homans sign in the calf.
Conclusion:
Ultrasonography plays an important role in the diagnosis of DVT after cesarean section
and the combination of disease features
clinical symptoms and D-dimer level changes is helpful for improving ultrasonography efficiency and diagnostic confidence.