We describe a patient in which a venous hum, heard during abdominal auscultation, lead to the diagnosis of a vena cava inferior thrombosis

AJ McFadzean

Britt Colebunders

D Groom

J Wicki

JD Douketis

JE Hardison

JS Radomski

Robert Colebunders

S Goodacre

English

PubMed

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Vena cava inferior thrombosis detected by venous hum: a case report

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BioMed CentralJournal of Medical Case Reports
ssOpen AcceCase report
Vena cava inferior thrombosis detected by venous hum: a case 
report
Robert Colebunders*1,2 and Britt Colebunders3
Address: 1Department of clinical sciences, Institute of Tropical Medicine, Nationalestraat 155, 2000 Antwerp, Belgium, 2Department of internal 
medicine, University of Antwerp, Universiteitsplein 1, 2610 Antwerp, Belgium and 3Faculty of Medicine, University of Antwerp, Campus Drie 
Eiken, Universiteitsplein 1, 2610 Antwerp, Belgium
Email: Robert Colebunders* - bcoleb@itg.be; Britt Colebunders - brittcolebunders@hotmail.com
* Corresponding author    
Abstract
We describe a patient in which a venous hum, heard during abdominal auscultation, lead to the
diagnosis of a vena cava inferior thrombosis.
Background
An early diagnosis of a vena cava inferior thrombosis is
essential because this is a life threatening condition if
treatment is delayed. To diagnose a deep venous throm-
bosis (DVT) a clinical prediction score "the Wells scoring
system" has been proposed (Table 1) [1]. However, even
in patients with a DVT of the lower legs this scoring system
was found to be of limited value and not able to replace
the physicians empirical assessment [2,3]. Certainly for
the diagnosis of a vena cava inferior thrombosis such a
scoring system is not very useful. In the following case a
venous hum, detected during abdominal auscultation,
was almost the only clinical sign suggesting a vena cava
inferior thrombosis.
Case presentation
A 24-year-old woman was admitted because of fever,
headache, muscle pain and a mild erythematous rash after
a trip to Costa Rica. She had been travelling by airplane for
12 hours. On physical examination a few small occipital
lymph nodes were noted. Based on serological testing an
acute toxoplasmosis infection was diagnosed. During 2
weeks of hospitalisation she nearly always stayed in bed
because of extreme fatigue. She did not wear T.E.D. anti-
embolism stockings and was not put on anticoagulation
prevention. Since the age of 16, she took an oral anti-con-
traceptive (cyproteron-ethinylestradiol), but never
smoked cigarettes. There was no family history of clotting
disorder. After discharge she was not followed up actively.
Sixteen days after her first hospitalisation, she was read-
mitted because of diffuse abdominal pain and a slight
degree of shortness of breath. On admission her blood
pressure was 120/70 mmHg, pulse rate 90/min, tempera-
ture 36.3°C. The respiratory rate was not noted. There was
no swelling of the legs. Examination of the lungs and the
abdomen was normal except that abdominal auscultation
revealed a murmur in the central area of the abdomen,
slightly more to the right. Because of this finding, an
urgent CT scan of the abdomen was performed. The CT
scan revealed a thrombosis of the vena cava inferior, the
left vena cava iliaca communis and externa and a small tri-
angular pulmonary infiltrate at the lower part of the right
lung. A chest X-ray and an electrocardiogram did not show
any abnormalities. O2 saturation was not measured. A
ventilation perfusion isotopic scan confirmed the diagno-
sis of pulmonary embolism. A cavography showed a float-
ing thrombus in the vena cava inferior. A temporary vena
cava filter was installed and she was successfully treated
initially with thrombolytic and later anticoagulant ther-
Published: 22 August 2007
Journal of Medical Case Reports 2007, 1:67 doi:10.1186/1752-1947-1-67
Received: 12 December 2006
Accepted: 22 August 2007
This article is available from: http://www.jmedicalcasereports.com/content/1/1/67
© 2007 Colebunders and Colebunders; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), 
which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Page 1 of 2
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apy. Investigations for genetic clotting disorders did not
reveal any abnormality.
Discussion
Auscultation of the abdomen of this patient, with a Wells
score of only 1, lead to the diagnosis of a life threatening
condition. This abdominal murmur was probably a
venous hum caused by the floating thrombus in the vena
cava inferior.
There are different types of venous hum. A cervical venous
hum is a continuous noise heard over the internal jugular
vein at the base of the neck [4,5]. It is frequently present
in normal people [5]. A hepatic venous hum has been
described in patients with liver cirrhosis, because of an
arterio-venous shunt or constriction of the vena cava infe-
rior by peri-venous hepatic fibrosis [6]. As far as we know,
a venous hum due to vena cava thrombosis has not been
reported.
Our patient presented with a floating thrombus in the
vena cava inferior documented by cavography. A free-
floating thrombus in the vena cava inferior is a high risk
factor for pulmonary embolism. Radomski JS et al evalu-
ated the risk of pulmonary embolism in 39 patients with
phlebographically documented inferior vena cava throm-
bosis [7]. Twenty-six (67%) of them had thrombi charac-
terized as free floating. The incidence of pulmonary
embolism in those patients was 50% compared to 15% in
those with adherent mural thrombi.
Conclusion
A vena cava inferior thrombosis should be suspected in
the presence of an abdominal venous hum. Today, with
all the sophisticated technical diagnostic tools we have at
our disposal, we sometimes forget that the old stetho-
scope still remains a very useful and cheap diagnostic
instrument.
Competing interests
The author(s) declare that they have no competing inter-
ests.
Authors' contributions
RC was the doctor taking care of the patient; BC reviewed
the literature; both RC and BC wrote the paper and
approved the final manuscript.
Acknowledgements
Patient consent was received for the case report.
References
1. Wicki J, Perneger TV, Junod AF, Bounameaux H, Perrier A: Assess-
ing clinical probability of pulmonary embolism in the emer-
gency ward: a simple score.  Arch Intern Med 2001, 161:92-7.
2. Goodacre S, Sutton AJ, Sampson FC: Meta-analysis: The value of
clinical assessment in the diagnosis of deep venous thrombo-
sis.  Ann Intern Med 143(2):129-39. 2005 Jul 19
3. Douketis JD: Use of a clinical prediction score in patients with
suspected deep venous thrombosis: two steps forward, one
step back?  Ann Intern Med 143(2):140-2. 2005 Jul 19
4. Groom D, Boone JA, Jenkins M: Venous hum in cardiac ausculta-
tion.  J Am Med Assoc 159(7):639-41. 1955 Oct 15
5. Hardison JE: Editorial: The cervical venous hum: a help and a
hindrance.  N Engl J Med 292(23):1239-40. 1975 Jun 5
6. McFadzean AJ, Gray J: Hepatic venous hum in cirrhosis of liver.
Lancet 265(6796):1128-30. 1953 Nov 28
7. Radomski JS, Jarrell BE, Carabasi RA, Yang SL, Koolpe H: Risk of pul-
monary embolus with inferior vena cava thrombosis.  Am Surg
1987, 53(2):97-101.
Table 1: Wells Score for Clinical Risk Deep Vein Thrombosis
Active cancer (1 point)
Paralysis, paresis, or recent plaster immobilization of the lower extremity (1 point)
Recently bedridden for more than three days or major surgery within four weeks (1 point)
Localized tenderness along the distribution of the deep venous system (1 point)
Entire leg swollen (1 point)
Calf swelling by more than 3 cm when compared with the asymptomatic leg (1 point)
Pitting edema -greater in the symptomatic leg (1 point)
Collateral superficial veins-non-varicose (1 point)
Alternative diagnosis as likely or more possible than that of DVT (-2 points)Page 2 of 2
(page number not for citation purposes)


Colebunders, R.

Colebunders, B.

Tropmed Central Antwerp

Abstract: We describe a patient in which a venous hum, heard during abdominal auscultation, lead to the diagnosis of a vena cava inferior thrombosis

Colebunders, Robert

Colebunders, Britt

Institutional Repository Universiteit Antwerpen

Vena cava inferior thrombosis detected by venous hum : a case report

Abstract We describe a patient in which a venous hum, heard during abdominal auscultation, lead to the diagnosis of a vena cava inferior thrombosis.</p

Vena cava inferior thrombosis detected by venous hum: a case report

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