Validity of the new six-component clinical prediction score for the diagnosis of lower limb deep vein thrombosis at the Philippine Heart Center.

Background: Signs and symptoms of suspected deep venous thrombosis may be nonspecific, hence it lacks sensitivity and specificity. Doppler ultrasonography is used as a non-invasive test to diagnose deep venous thrombosis. A foreign study was done using a simple clinical model which has a similar diagnostic ability to diagnose deep venous thrombosis however, a prospective validating study is needed.

Methods: This study involved 314 patients who underwent Doppler ultrasonography at the Vascular Laboratory of the Philippine Heart Center from July 1, 2005 to November 30, 2006. Of these, 17% of the population tested positive for deep venous thrombosis. Analysis showed that there is a high false negative or false positive values based on the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive and negative predictive values in the diagnosis of deep venous thrombosis. Based on this, the new six-component clinical prediction score is a week predictor in diagnosing deep venous thrombosis and has not replaced Doppler ultarsonography as a reference standard.