Regular ArticleFactors associated with the timing of diagnosis of venous thromboembolism: Results from the MASTER registry☆
Section snippets
Inclusion criteria
To be enrolled in the observational registry, consecutive patients with symptomatic acute VTE must have met the following criteria: 18 years of age or older, presence of objectively documented symptomatic DVT or PE, and potential availability for a long term follow up (life expectancy of more than 3 months and possibility of follow up visits). Both outpatients referred by their family physicians and inpatients referred by other departments were included in the study. Outpatients were included
Results
A total of 2047 patients were evalutated, 1505 were symptomatic for DVT and 542 were symptomatic for PE. Eight hundred and eighty-nine patients had a proximal DVT of the lower limbs, 488 patients had a distal DVT of the lower limbs, 120 patients had an upper limb DVT, and 34 patients had an inferior vena cava DVT. PE was more frequent in female than in male patients (OR 1.50, 95% CI 1.22–1.80).
Diagnosis of DVT was obtained within 5 days from onset of symptoms in 47.1% of patients, and in more
Discussion
The results of this large Italian registry confirm that in daily clinical practice a substantial proportion of patients with either DVT or PE receive a delayed objective diagnosis. Early diagnosis, that was defined as an objective diagnosis obtained within 5 days from the onset of symptoms, was achieved in less than 50% of patients with DVT and in approximately two thirds of patients with suspected PE; late diagnosis, that is after more than 10 days, was observed in more than one out of five
Acknowledgments
The MASTER investigators wish to thank Sanofi-Aventis Pharmaceuticals-Italy for supporting this registry with an unrestricted educational grant and the Comunica & Comunica group for the administrative and logistic support. We express our particular gratitude to Valeria Cantone, Alfredo Spreafico, and Albino Ventura.
The study was supported by an unrestricted educational grant by Sanofi-Aventis SpA, Milan, Italy. The sponsor had no role in the design and conduct of the study, management,
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The manuscript was presented as an abstract at the ISTH Meeting in Geneva, on July 8th 2007.