Trombosis venosa y cáncer oculto

Objective. A selective search for occult cancer in patients admitted to hospital because of deep vein thrombosis. Patients and methods. A retrospective study of the application of a diagnostic protocol comprising abdominal ultrasoundechography and tumour markers Ca 19.9 and PSA to 46 out of 75 patients admitted to hospital with deep vein thrombosis during 1998, excluding subjects with known neoplasms, those aged over 80 years and recently post-operative patients. Results. Abdominal ultrasound was suspicious of cancer in 5 ofthe 46 subjects (10.8%), Ca 19.9 was elevatedin 2 subjects (4.3%) and PSA was elevatedin 4 subjects (8.6%) andgreatly elevatedin 2 (4.3%). We confirmedthe diagnosis of6occultcancers, 13.4% of the selected group and 8% ofthe total 75 patients admitted to hospital due to deep vein thrombosis. Conclusions. The selective searchfor occult cancer inpatients admittedto hospitalwith deep vein thrombosis using this protocol allowed detection ofneoplasms that wouldo therwise have been missed. We believe that our results justify the systematic use of this protocol using the statedselection criteria.