OBJECTIVETo evaluate the predicting value of Wells, Kahn, St. André and Constans scores for the diagnosis of deep venous thrombosis in Chinese patients.

METHODSA total of 274 patients suspected with deep venous thrombosis was prospectively blinded evaluated with the four clinical-score systems. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value and receiver operation curves were calculated for four clinical scores according sonography results.

RESULTSSonography evidenced deep venous thrombosis in 88 out of 274 patients. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value was 77.3%, 65.6%, 51.5% and 85.9%, respectively, for Wells score; 58%, 55.9%, 38.3% and 73.8%, respectively, for Kahn score; 64.8%, 55.4%, 40.7% and 76.9%, respectively, for St. André score and 86.4%, 37.6%, 39.6% and 85.4%, respectively, for Constans score. ROC was 0.761 for Wells score, which was similar as that of Constans score (0.759), then followed by St. André score (0.627) and Kahn score (0.591).

CONCLUSIONOur results showed that Wells score and Constans score are superior to Kahn score or St. André score for diagnosing patients with suspected deep venous thrombosis in terms of sensitivity, negative prediction value and ROC values.