Ultrasound examination of deep vein thrombosis during pregnancy Essay

Ultrasound examination of deep vein thrombosis during pregnancy - Essay Example Deep venous thrombosis was classically diagnosed by venography, which has its own problems in a pregnant patient. Recently with development of suitable technology, noninvasive methods such as plethysmography and specifically Doppler ultrasonography are being increasingly used to diagnose clinically silent deep venous thrombosis in pregnant individuals. The clinical criteria of deep venous thrombosis are rarely apparent in many cases, and some actual cases of DVT are termed as superficial phlebitis (Chan et al., 2002). Thus a diagnostic modality that can establish the diagnosis would be very necessary due to initiate management and prevent complications which may be detrimental to the fetus and life-threatening to the mother. Mortality rates of thromboembolism in pregnancy have been reported to be 15% in untreated patients and less than 1% in treated patients. This substantiates the grounds for establishing an early diagnosis and treatment based on that. It is quite evident that the r easons the patients remain untreated are ill-defined clinical manifestations, need for a very index of suspicion, lack of guideline regarding routine screening examinations for DVT in pregnant women, unavailability of a dependable and reliable noninvasive test, consequent failure to establish the diagnosis, and resultant failure to initiate treatment, all of which culminate into death of 15% pregnant women affected with DVT, much of which can be prevented with the use of a noninvasive and easy to use diagnostic imaging procedure (Ray and Chan, 1999). Early diagnosis and early intervention remain the clues to successful outcome specially in pregnant women since missing the diagnosis has potentially fatal implications. Over the top of that misdiagnoses have implications of potentially unnecessary risks of anticoagulation therapy such as teratogenic effects of drugs in the first trimester and the risk of fetal