O70: A Novel Screening Tool for Pelvic Venous disorders

Abstract

Abstract Objective Pelvic venous disease (PeVD) remains a common yet under-diagnosed condition, and there remains no standardised diagnostic work-up. A self-assessment questionnaire was developed to aid the identification of women with PeVD. The study aimed to assess the performance of the questionnaire score in identifying patients with PeVD. Methods Retrospective data analysis from consecutive referrals to a vascular surgery clinic in Singapore between 2018-2022. Before diagnostic evaluation, patients completed a novel, 6-item questionnaire, resulting in a Basic Score. From 2022, patients completed an additional 4-item questionnaire developed as an adjunct, resulting in a Specific Score - adding Basic and Specific Scores yields the Combined Score. Duplex US was used as the reference standard. Results A total of 94 women were assessed. Of these, 73 (77.8%) met DUS criteria for PeVD. All completed the Basic questionnaire, which demonstrated high discriminatory ability (area under the receiver-operating curve (AUC) of 0.878 [95% CI:0.779-0.977]). A Basic Score ≥3 had high sensitivity and moderately high specificity of 93.2% [95% CI: 84.7 -97.7] and 81.0% [95% CI:58.1 – 94.6], respectively. 36.2% (34/94) of patients answered both questionnaires. There was insufficient evidence that the Specific questionnaire improved performance (AUC 0.979 [95% CI: 0.937 – 1.00] vs 0.966 [95% CI:0.903 -1.00], for Basic Score vs Combined Score). Conclusions Our findings suggest that the Basic questionnaire may be useful in the diagnostic workup of PeVD, potentially increasing referral to vascular specialists for appropriate management. However, diagnostic accuracy may be over-estimated due to high disease prevalence in the cohort, prohibiting generalisation of results.