D-dimer testing in pregnant patients: towards determining the next ‘level’ in the diagnosis of deep vein thrombosis

SUMMARY BACKGROUND: The role of D-dimer in excluding deep vein thrombosis (DVT) in pregnancy is currently uncertain. We hypothesized that the specificity of sensitive D-dimer assays could be improved without compromising sensitivity by using higher D-dimer cut-off values. OBJECTIVE: To determine the test characteristics of two rapid enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays and three latex agglutination assays in pregnancy.