How is DVT diagnosed?

If your doctor suspects you have a DBT, you should be referred to hospital within 24 hours for treatment and review. Your doctor might calculate something like a Well Score to work out the likelihood of you having a DBT. It involves looking at your symptoms and risk factors for DVT formation. Depending on your well score the doctor may order the following tests. A D-dimer, this is a blood test that looks at the breakdown products of a blood clot so the higher it is the more likely you are to have a have a clot. However it can be raised in a number of conditions so it's only to show how likely you are to have one and you'll need further investigations to confirm the presence of it. A duplex ultrasound is another investigation that can be ordered which is used to show the blood flow in the leg veins at any blockage in blood flow. Ultrasound is useful because it's easy and it's non-invasive and it's also relatively cheap to use. So this is the most common test that is used to diagnose DBT.