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Previous Volume 350:192-194 January 8, 2004 Number 2 Next

	Since this article has no abstract, we have provided an extract of the first 100 words of the full text and any section headings.

	Full Text PDF PDA Full Text Purchase this article Add to Personal Archive Add to Citation Manager Notify a Friend E-mail When Cited E-mail When Letters Appear Related Article by Bockenstedt, P. Related Article by Wells, P. S. Related Article by Fedullo, P. F. PubMed Citation

To the Editor: Wells and colleagues (Sept. 25 issue)¹ report on the use of D-dimer testing in patients with suspected deep-vein thrombosis. Patients with a low pretest probability of deep-vein thrombosis and a negative result on the D-dimer test did not undergo confirmatory testing. This is problematic. Current recommendations for the evaluation of new diagnostic tests suggest an independent, blinded comparison with a reference standard and application of that standard independently of the test being evaluated.² The gold standard for deep-vein thrombosis is either duplex ultrasonography or venography, neither of which was performed in this study group. The "gold standard" . . . [Full Text of this Article]

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Fancher, T. L, White, R. H, Kravitz, R. L (2004). Combined use of rapid D-dimer testing and estimation of clinical probability in the diagnosis of deep vein thrombosis: systematic review. BMJ 329: 821- [Abstract] [Full Text]