Facing the challenge of venous thromboembolism prevention in patients undergoing major abdominal surgical procedures for gastrointestinal cancer

Table 1 Diagnostic modalities applied for deep vein thrombosis detection

Deep vein thrombosis	U/S (B-mode)	U/S (Doppler)	Venography	Impedance plethysmography	CTV	MRI	Radiolabeled peptides
Mechanism of action	Veins with thrombi do not compress	Absent or abnormal blood flow when a thrombus is present	Pedal vein cannulation and injection of contrast material	Measures electrical resistance of the calf reflecting blood volume change	Spiral multidetector CT venography from popliteal fossa to the pelvis	-	Radiolabeled peptides that bind to various components of a thrombus
Sensitivity and specificity	95%	95%	100%	Sensitive and specific in proximal vein thrombosis	-	-	-
Advantages	Non-invasiveness Absence of radiation or contrast material	Non-invasiveness Absence of radiation or contrast material	High sensitivity and specificity	-	-	Ileac vein or inferior vena cava thrombosis, when CT venography is contraindicated or technically inadequate	Apcitide, a technetium-labeled platelet glycoprotein IIb/IIIa receptor antagonist
Disadvantages	Obesity, small peripheral thrombi, asymptomatic disease	Obesity, small peripheral thrombi asymptomatic disease	Invasiveness Hypersensitivity reactions Renal toxicity	-	Correlation with sonographic findings	-	Expensive

CTV: Computed tomography venography; MRI: Magnetic resonance imaging.