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English

Age-dependent D-dimer cut-off value increases the number of older patients in whom deep vein thrombosis can be safely excluded

Contributors

Douma, Renee A; Tan, Melanie; Schutgens, Roger; Bates, Shannon M; Perrier, Arnaud; Legnani, Cristina; Biesma, Douwe H; Ginsberg, Jeffrey S; Bounameaux, Henri; Palareti, Gualtiero; Carrier, Marc; Mol, Gerben C; Le Gal, Gregoire; Kamphuisen, Pieter W; Righini, Marc Philip

Published in

Haematologica, vol. 97, no. 10, p. 1507-1513

Publication date

2012

Abstract

Background. D-Dimer testing to rule out deep vein thrombosis is less useful in older patients due to lower specificity. An age-adjusted D-dimer cut-off value increased the proportion of older patients (>50 years) in whom pulmonary embolism could be excluded. We retrospectively validated the efficacy of this cut-off combined with clinical probability for the exclusion of deep vein thrombosis. Design and Methods. Five management study cohorts of 2818 consecutive outpatients with suspected deep vein thrombosis were used. Patients with non-high or unlikely probability for deep vein thrombosis were included in the analysis; four different D-dimer tests were used. The proportion of patients with a normal D-dimer test and the failure rates were calculated using the conventional (500 μg/L) and the age-adjusted D-dimer cut-off (patient's age x 10 μg/L in patients >50 years). Results. In 1672 patients with non-high probability, deep vein thrombosis could be excluded in 850 (51%) with the age-adjusted versus 707 (42%) patients with the conventional cut-off value. The failure rates were 7 (0.8; 95% confidence interval 0.3-1.7%) for the age-adjusted and 5 (0.7%, 0.2-1.6%) for the conventional cut-off value. The absolute increase in patients in whom deep vein thrombosis could be ruled out using the age-adjusted cut-off value was largest in patients >70 years: 19% among patients with non- high probability. Conclusions. The age-adjusted cut-off of the D-dimer combined with clinical probability greatly increases the proportion of older patients in whom deep vein thrombosis can be safely excluded.

UNIGE affiliation entities

UNIGE research groups

Citation (ISO format)

DOUMA, Renee A et al. Age-dependent D-dimer cut-off value increases the number of older patients in whom deep vein thrombosis can be safely excluded. In: Haematologica, 2012, vol. 97, n° 10, p. 1507–1513. doi: 10.3324/haematol.2011.060657

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Article (Published version)

Identifiers

Journal ISSN

0390-6078
691views
834downloads

Technical informations

Creation

11/10/2012 10:02:00

First validation

11/10/2012 10:02:00

Update

09/02/2026 14:33:23

Status update

09/02/2026 14:33:23

Last indexation

20/04/2026 15:27:08
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