Incidentally detected splanchnic vein thrombosis: A sub-study from an international registry

Background Splanchnic vein thrombosis (SVT) is often diagnosed incidentally. Whether demographic characteristics, underlying risk factors and therapeutic management of patients with incidentally detected SVT (IDSVT) differ from symptomatic patients is unknown. Materials and Methods Consecutive patients with objectively diagnosed SVT were eligible for a multicenter, international registry, between May 2008 and January 2012. Information on clinical presentations, risk factors and therapeutic strategies was collected and analyzed separately for asymptomatic patients. Results Out of 613 episodes of SVT 180 were incidentally detected. IDSVT patients were significantly older than symptomatic patients (56.2 and 52.1 years, respectively, p=0.0007). Gender distribution (66.7% and 60.7% males, p=0.196) and ethnicity (73.9% and 74.4% Caucasians, p=1) were similar between the two groups. Computed tomography was more commonly used as diagnostic imaging in symptomatic patients (63.7% and 73.8%, p=0.016), while ultrasonography was more frequent in IDSVT (29.1% and 19.8%, p=0.018). IDSVT patients were more likely to have single vein involvement (60.6% and 47.5%, p=0.004). Portal vein was the most frequently involved vessel in both groups (77.8% and 76.5%, p=0.806), while mesenteric (32.2% and 47.8%, p=0.0006) and splenic vein thrombosis (17.2% and 25.2%, p=0.043) was more common in symptomatic patients. Patients with IDSVT were more likely to have underlying solid cancer (34.4% and 17.6%,