Table 10.
—[Sections 5.1-5.3] Summary of Findings of Diagnostic Studies in Patients with Suspected Pregnancy-Related DVT: Prospective Cohort Management Studies
| Diagnostic Strategy Used to Exclude DVT | Number of Participants (Studies) | Outcome | Incidence of VTE During Follow-up Among Those Judged to Have DVT Excluded (ie, Post-TP of DVT), % (95% CI) | Quality of Evidence |
| Negative serial CUS of the proximal veins and calf trifurcation (with imaging of the iliac veins in women with symptoms of isolated iliac vein thrombosis) on day of presentation, day 3, and day 7186 | 149 (1) | VTE diagnosed during 3 mo of follow-up | 0.7 (95% CI, 0.1-4.0) | Moderatea |
| Single whole-leg US187 | 194 (1) | VTE diagnosed during 3 mo of follow-up | 1.7 (95% CI, 0.6-5.0) | Lowb |
Consequences in terms of presenting with VTE during clinical follow-up when specified strategies are used to rule out pregnancy-related DVT. GRADE Working Group grades of evidence: High quality: Further research is very unlikely to change our confidence in the estimate of effect. Moderate quality: Further research is likely to have an important impact on our confidence in the estimate of effect and may change the estimate. Low quality: Further research is very likely to have an important impact on our confidence in the estimate of effect and is likely to change the estimate. See Table 1 and 3 legends for expansion of abbreviations.
Serious limitations (proportion of patients who underwent single CUS vs those who underwent serial testing on days 3 and 7 not specified and proportion of patients who required imaging of the iliac veins not specified), single study with overall prevalence of DVT of 8.7%, wide 95% CI.
Serious limitations (an unspecified number were postpartum, of 176 women without DVT at presentation, three received full-dose anticoagulants despite negative US, complete follow-up only on 164 women), single study, study published only in abstract.