Comparative study to establish significance of D-dimer, lipid profile and homocysteine level in cases of deep vein thrombosis

Abstract

Background: The purpose of the study was to establish the relationship of D-dimer, lipid profile and homocysteine level in deep-vein thrombosis (DVT). The purpose of this study was to assess the value of D-dimer in the detection of early DVT.Methods: A hospital based comparative study was conducted at Dr. D.Y. Patil Medical College, Hospital and Research Centre, Pimpri, Pune with 100 patients to compare the level of D-dimer and lipid profile in cases of Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT) with healthy controls. The study was carried out with following two groups of 50 patients each: study group : 50 cases with DVT; control group: 50 healthy controls.Results: The D-Dimer levels was significantly higher in study group as compared to control group (748.44±93.17 vs. 426.06±78.11 ng/ml) and statistically significant as per student t-test (p<0.05). It was observed that total cholesterol (r=0.714; p<0.05), triglyceride (r=0.534; p<0.05), LDL (r=0.662; p<0.05), HDL (r=0.655; p<0.05), homocysteine (r=0.285; p<0.05) and D-dimer (r=0.368; p<0.05) were strongly and directly correlated with DVT.Conclusions: In our study most sensitive test for early diagnosis of DVT is D-dimer as it is considered to be useful as a screening test for DVT in hospitalized patients with acute medical diseases/episodes. D-dimer assay is an important preliminary test to detect deep vein thrombosis in post-operative cases. Its extreme sensitivity and high negative predictive value make it an ideal single test to screen patients suspected of having deep vein thrombosis. A negative test rules out deep vein thrombois and a positive test report needs further investigation for its confirmation. In case of increased lipid profile levels, patients are more prone to develop DVT hence there should be regular screening for DVT.