Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2019 Jan 25:17:2.
doi: 10.1186/s12959-019-0191-y. eCollection 2019.

Predictive risk factors of venous thromboembolism (VTE) associated with peripherally inserted central catheters (PICC) in ambulant solid cancer patients: retrospective single Centre cohort study

Osamah Al-Asadi  1   2   3 , Manar Almusarhed  1   2   4 , Hany Eldeeb  1   2
Affiliations
Review

Predictive risk factors of venous thromboembolism (VTE) associated with peripherally inserted central catheters (PICC) in ambulant solid cancer patients: retrospective single Centre cohort study

Osamah Al-Asadi et al. Thromb J. .

Abstract

Aims: Peripherally inserted central catheters(PICC) lines are becoming increasingly popular in solid cancer patients for the administration of chemotherapy. This study aims looking at the incidence of PICC line related and distant thromboembolism associated with these catheters and exploring risk factors.

Methods: Records were reviewed for 158 patients who underwent PICC line insertion over the two years period in the medical oncology unit, Milton Keynes University Hospital. The Incidence PICC line related Deep Venous Thrombosis (DVT) which is defined as upper extremity DVT at the site of PICC line insertion was documented after checking reports of ultrasound Doppler of all symptomatic patients to confirm the presence of thrombo-embolism and Computed Tomography(CT)scan or Computed Tomography Pulmonary Angiography (CTPA) to confirm the presence Pulmonary Embolism(PE).

Results: 23(13%) symptomatic patients with confirmed diagnosis by ultrasound Doppler were found to have PICC line related DVT and similar number of patients developed distant VTE, namely PE and lower limbs DVT. Average time to thrombo-embolism from the insertion of PICC line was 13 days and 51 days in distant VTE. Statistically significant results have been identified in the term of risk factors leading to VTE events during the period of PICC line insertion.

Conclusions: VTE is a common complication in medical oncology patients who underwent insertion PICC line insertion for chemotherapy. Risk of distant VTE is high as well as the PICC line related DVT and the risk of the PICC line related DVT is higher in the first two weeks after PICC insertion. We concluded that high BMI,high PLTs count and Fluropyrimidine containing chemotherapy are all significant risk factors for VTE events recorded while smoking and high BMI are significantly contributing to the high rate of the PICC line related DVT.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

This is a clinical audit, authorised by Milton Keynes Hospitals NHS Trust (Audit Registration Number – 2017.448).Not applicable.The authors declare that they have no competing interests.Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
summary of odds ratios of all potential predictive factors
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. O'Brien J, et al. Insertion of PICCs with minimum number of lumens reduces complications and costs. J Am Coll Radiol. 2013;10:864–868. doi: 10.1016/j.jacr.2013.06.003. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Gibson C, et al. Peripherally inserted central catheters: use at a tertiary care pediatric center. J Vasc Interv Radiol. 2013;24:1323–1331. doi: 10.1016/j.jvir.2013.04.010. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Aw A, et al. Incidence and predictive factors of symptomatic thrombosis related to peripherally inserted central catheters in chemotherapy patients. Thromb Res. 2012;130(3):323–326. doi: 10.1016/j.thromres.2012.02.048. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Verso M, Agnelli G. Venous thromboembolism associated with long-term use of central venous catheters in cancer patients. J Clin Oncol. 2003;21(19):3665–3675. doi: 10.1200/JCO.2003.08.008. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Chopra V, et al. The problem with peripherally inserted central catheters. JAMA. 2012;308:1527–1528. doi: 10.1001/jama.2012.12704. - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources