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Using clinical decision rules to diagnose deep vein thrombosis in pregnant women


August 13, 2014

Dr. Gregoire Le Gal has published a paper in Thrombosis Research that examines the effectiveness of a new clinical decision rule for diagnosing deep vein thrombosis in pregnant women. In their study, Dr. Le Gal and his team evaluated the “LEFt” clinical decision rule that is increasingly being used to estimate the probability of a woman developing deep vein thrombosis during her pregnancy. LEFt stands for “Leg suspicion, Edema, First trimester of pregnancy.” A total of 96 pregnant women took part in the study and were evaluated for deep vein thrombosis using both the LEFt clinical decision rule and the standard whole-leg venous ultrasonography diagnostic tool. The results confirmed the ability of the LEFt rule to estimate the pretest probability of deep vein thrombosis in pregnant women. However, more study is required to validate these findings. Read the study.

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