D-Dimer in Acute Mesenteric Venous Thrombosis: A Prospective Case-Control International Multicenter Study

Background: Acute mesenteric venous thrombosis (MVT) is rarely suspected as primary diagnosis in emergency departments and still carries an in-hospital mortality rate of above 20%. Objectives: The aim of this study was to find differences in clinical and laboratory markers between patients with acute MVT and a control group of suspected but confirmed as not having any type of acute mesenteric ischaemia (AMI). Design: Data was retrieved from the AMESI (Acute MESenteric Ischaemia) study. This international, multicenter prospective case-control study from 32 sites collected data on patients with suspected AMI during a 10-month period. Methods: Independent factors associated with acute MVT were evaluated in a multivariable logistic regression analysis and expressed as odds ratios (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI). Results: D-dimer was not significantly higher in MVT (n = 73) compared to non-AMI (n = 287) patients (median 7.0 mg/L vs 4.5 mg/L, P =.092). After entering BMI, atherosclerotic disease, history of venous thromboembolism, CRP, and D-dimer as covariates in a multi-variable logistic regression analysis, absence of atherosclerotic disease (OR 0.096, 95% CI 0.011-0.84; P =.034) and elevated D-dimer (OR 2.59/one SD increment, 95% CI 1.07-6.28; P =.034) were associated with MVT. The discriminative ability of D-dimer for MVT as assessed by area under the curve in the receiver operating characteristics analysis was 0.63 (95% CI 0.49-0.78). Conclusion: Elevated D-dimer was associated with MVT, but the discriminative ability of D-dimer was poor. There is an urgent need to find a more accurate plasma biomarker for this condition. TRIAL REGISTRATION: NCT05218863 (registered 19.01.2022).