The role of molecular imaging in diagnosis of deep vein thrombosis.

Abstract

Venous thromboembolism (VTE) mostly presenting as deep venous thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE) affects up to 600,000 individuals in United States each year. Clinical symptoms of VTE are nonspecific and sometimes misleading. Additionally, side effects of available treatment plans for DVT are significant. Therefore, medical imaging plays a crucial role in proper diagnosis and avoidance from over/under diagnosis, which exposes the patient to risk. In addition to conventional structural imaging modalities, such as ultrasonography and computed tomography, molecular imaging with different tracers have been studied for diagnosis of DVT. In this review we will discuss currently available and newly evolving targets and tracers for detection of DVT using molecular imaging methods.