Where is the most common site of DVT? Evaluation by CT venography.

PURPOSE: Our aim was to clarify the common site of deep venous thrombosis (DVT) in patients suspected of having pulmonary embolism using computed tomography pulmonary angiography with computed tomography venography (CTV).

MATERIALS AND

METHODS

We evaluated 215 patients. For all studies, 100 ml of 370 mg I/ml nonionic contrast material was administered. CTV were scanned with helical acquisition starting at 3 min in four-slice multidetector-row computed tomography (MDCT) or 5 min in 64-MDCT after the start of contrast material injection. The site of DVT was divided into iliac vein, femoral vein, popliteal vein, or calf vein. Calf vein was divided into muscular (soleal and gastrocnemius) and nonmuscular (anterior/posterior tibial and peroneal) veins. The 2 × 2 chi-square test was used.

RESULTS

One hundred and thirty-seven patients showed DVT; the muscular calf vein was more prevalent than other veins (P < 0.01).

CONCLUSIONS

Our study showed that the most common site of DVT was the muscular calf vein.