The Benefit of Using a D-dimer Assay with a High Clinical Specificity
November 29, 2016
Webinar presented by Karin Strandberg, MD, PhD, Assoc. Prof, Consultant, Labmedicine, Skåne, Sweden
About this webinar
D-dimer can be used to exclude venous thromboembolism (VTE) in outpatients. Together with a low pretest probability for VTE, a negative D-dimer can safely rule out VTE in 30-50 % of patients with suspected VTE.
To date, there is no standardisation of D-dimer tests, which causes variation in results among methods.
This webinar will discuss pitfalls and limitations of the D-dimer analyte with special focus on the performance differences among methods.
The use of D-dimer requires a method with particular performance characteristics, most importantly:
- A high sensitivity and negative predictive value (NPV) to ensure that patients with VTE are not falsely characterized as ”not sick”
- Acceptable diagnostic specificity to minimize the number of radiological imagings on patients without VTE
- Good reproducibility around the cut-off (decision limit) to ensure reproducibility of whether a result is ”positive” or ”negative”.
A verification of the performance of the assay in the local clinical population is also recommended, but it is a difficult and time-consuming task. Publications on comparisons between methods are therefore sometimes used to support the choice of method and the cut-off.
Besides a sensitivity and negative predictive value (NPV) as close to 100 % as possible, a high specificity is of importance to limit the number of unnecessary radiological imagings for the benefit of the patient and to improve logistics and lower the costs of the health care costs.
Who should attend?
- ED doctors and nurses
- Respiratory doctors
- Lab managers
- POC managers
- Cardiologists
- ICU doctors
- Operation theater doctors and nurses
Continuing education
US participants:
- One PACE® credit will be provided for each session
- Each session is approved for 1 Florida CE credit
Florida Board of Clinical Laboratory Personnel approved number:
50-12563
International participants:
- A Certificate of Attendance will be available for all sessions for international participants to submit to their appropriate accrediting agencies
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