Should Every Patient with Deep Vein Thrombosis Be Examined using Thoracic Ultrasound?] [JOURNAL ARTICLE]
PURPOSE: Examination of the prognostic importance of sonographically diagnosed pleural defects in patients with deep vein thrombosis (DVT) who are clinically asymptomatic for lung emboli (LE). MATERIAL AND METHOD: n = 124 patients with a sonographically diagnosed DVT and without clinical symptoms for an LE were accepted for this retrospective study. The thorax was subsequently sonographically examined in all patients. The patients were split into two groups (group 1: with pleural defects; group 2: without pleural defects). These groups were observed for an average of 36.6 months. The endpoints death and recurrence of pulmonary embolism or thrombosis were documented. The survival time was calculated using the Kaplan-Meier analysis. RESULTS: Of the 124 patients, n = 50 (40.3 %) had pleural defects (group 1) and n = 74 (59.7 %) had no pleural defects (group 2) on thoracic sonography. During the time of observation, n = 9 patients experienced a recurrent event of thrombosis or pulmonary em
