Deep vein thrombosis in pregnancy

Abstract

Venous thrombotic events (VTE) prevalence is estimated to be 1-2 for every 10,000 pregnancies, making it one of main causes of maternal mortality in developed countries. VTE’s leading risk factors are history of the condition and hereditary thrombophilia. D-dimer tests conducted during pregnancies have in many cases led to false positive results while a few false negatives have also been found. For pregnant women, it is important for evaluation to begin with compression ultrasound before magnetic resonance imaging, which seeks a negative test and focuses on the pelvis. On the other hand, a chest x-ray should be done for pulmonary embolism, which helps in deciding between a CT pulmonary angiogram and perfusion study for normal and abnormal x-ray, respectively. Generally, treatment is composed of heparin of low molecular weight for at least six weeks after childbirth. Thrombolysis can be significant for life-threatening and serious thrombolysis. For populations at high risk, VTE prophylaxis still faces a lot of uncertainty. In fact, there is still little evidence to support the essence of mechanical prophylaxis for all women who have delivered through cesarean.