Alkystis Phinikaridou1, Prakash Saha2, Marcelo Andia3, Alberto Smith2, and René M Botnar1
1Biomedical Engineering, King's College London, London, United Kingdom, 2Academic Surgery, King's College London, London, United Kingdom, 3Radiology, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile
Deep vein thrombosis (DVT) affects
1 in 1000 people. Its sequelae include post-thrombotic syndrome (PTS), which
affects up to 75% of patients within 5 years and is characterised
by persistent pain, swelling and ulceration. Thrombolysis can reduce PTS
by a third and is attempted in patients with an ilio-femoral DVT and symptom
onset of <3weeks. Determining age and thrombus structure by history alone
is, however, subjective and there are no established methods to quantify the
abundance of matrix proteins, which determines the response to lysis. This
treatment is therefore only effective in ~60% of patients, which may unnecessarily
exposes to haemorrhagic side effects. We have developed a non-contrast enhanced
magnetic resonance, multi-sequence thrombus imaging (MSTI) technique that can
provide information about the structural composition of experimental thrombus
[1-2]. Here, we aim in translating the MRI approach into man and determine
whether it can help guide venous
intervention.
