CT venography for deep venous thrombosis: can it predict catheter-directed thrombolysis prognosis in patients with iliac vein compression syndrome?

To evaluate the prognostic value of CT venography for catheter-directed thrombolysis (CDT) in iliac vein compression syndrome (IVCS) patients with deep venous thrombosis (DVT). The institutional review board approved this retrospective study and waived informed consent. Among the 201 consecutive patients treated in our interventional suite for DVT from January 2001 to June 2013, 48 IVCS patients (12 men, 36 women) who underwent pre-procedural CT venography, CDT with stenting, and follow-up imaging were analyzed. To identify possible determinants of 6-month patency, CT venography was evaluated with Fisher's exact test and logistic regression analyses. Based on the analyses, image-based criteria were established and compared to the current symptom duration-based approach by receiver-operating-characteristic curve analyses and the McNemar test. Recoiling of external iliac vein (EIV) diameter (<120 %) [hazard ratio (HR) 28.652, p = .007] and severe rim enhancement (HR 20.545, p = .016) were significant risk factors for venous occlusion within 6 months of CDT. The dual-parameter image-based criteria were significantly superior to the current symptom duration-based approach in terms of area under the curve value (p = .010) and predictive accuracy (p = .031). With a 2-point cut-off, the proposed criteria demonstrated a 66.7 % sensitivity, 100.0 % specificity, and 92.9 % predictive accuracy for identifying non-responders of CDT. CT venography may be useful in assessing CDT prognoses in IVCS patients, particularly to identify non-responders who demonstrate recoiling of EIV diameter and rim enhancement on CT venography.