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African Health Sciences
Makerere University Medical School
ISSN: 1680-6905 EISSN: 1680-6905
Vol. 13, No. 3, 2013, pp. 584-589
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Bioline Code: hs13090
Full paper language: English
Document type: Research Article
Document available free of charge
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African Health Sciences, Vol. 13, No. 3, 2013, pp. 584-589
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D-Dimer assay as a non invasive test for the diagnosis of left atrial Thrombi in Indian patients with Rheumatic MS
Rajappa, M; Sunil Roy, TN; Raj, A; Trehan, V & Mallika, V
Abstract
Background: Systemic embolism is a serious and sometime fatal complication of rheumatic MS.
Objective: We assessed the predictive power of D-Dimer level to predict occurrence of left atrial (LA) thrombi in patients with rheumatic mitral stenosis (MS).
Methods: D-dimer levels were analyzed for 24 patients with rheumatic MS with LA clot and 22 patients with rheumatic MS with no LA clot undergoing transeosophageal echocardiography. A level more than 4 μg/ml was taken as elevated to predict the presence of LA clot in the study groups.
Results: For a cut-off value of 4 μg/ml, sensitivity was 66.67 % and specificity 100 % for prediction of LA clot and AUC 0.710. A cut-off value of less than 1 μg/ml, sensitivity was 91.67 % and 87. 5 % negative predictive value for ruling out presence of LA clot and AUC 0.721.
Conclusions: A higher value of D-dimer can predict the possible presence of a LA clot and very low value can predict absence of clot in patients with rheumatic MS.
Keywords
Rheumatic MS, Left atrial thrombus, D-Dimer levels, Transoesophageal echocardiography
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© African Health Sciences
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