D-Dimer Level Associates with the Incidence of Focal Neurological Deficits in Cerebral Venous Thrombosis Patients

Abstract

Purpose

D-dimer is one of the main coagulation factors that plays a role in some diseases. Cerebral venous thrombosis (CVT) is a rare cerebrovascular disease with various clinical presentations, and the D-dimer might contribute to its clinical progress. Our study’s objective was to explore the association between D-dimer level and focal neurological deficits in selected CVT patients.

Patients and Methods

The patients’ data were retrospectively enrolled if they showed venous thrombus features in the digital subtraction angiography examination. Data collected were then evaluated using appropriate statistical tests.

Results

In a total of 30 patients, 24 patients had focal neurological deficits with abnormal D-dimer (mean 1.13±1.359 mg/L). We continued analysis to determine the association between the visual analog scale (VAS), a tool to measure the patient’s pain, and coagulation factors. There was no significant association between the VAS score and all the coagulation factors. Interestingly, a positive association was found between focal neurological deficits and abnormal D-dimer levels (p=0.009).

Conclusion

The abnormality of D-dimer levels in CVT’s patients associates with the incidence of focal neurological deficits.

Keywords:

• cerebral venous thrombosis
• coagulation factors
• D-dimer
• focal neurological deficits

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank all the staff members of Hasan Sadikin Hospital for their contribution during data collection. This work was supported by grant from Universitas Padjadjaran and the Ministry of research, and Technology/BRIN of the Republic of Indonesia to NA.

Disclosure

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.