European Journal of Cardiovascular Medicine

Background: To evaluate the role of non-enhanced computed tomography (NECT) brain in diagnosis of acute cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST). Methods: This cross sectional study was done in the Department of Radiodiagnosis among 32 patients referred to Radiology Department with symptoms & signs of acute cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (ACVST). The attenuation values of different dural venous sinuses & major cerebral veins/ large cortical veins were recorded in the proforma. The sensitivity, specificity & accuracy of using attenuation value of 70 HU as predicted in previous article was calculated. Also the cut off attenuation value suggestive of thrombosis was calculated retrospectively in our study keeping   sensitivity, specificity and accuracy to the maximum. Results: The majority of subjects are of 21-30 years age group (31.25%) and maximum were males(62.5%). 10(31.2%) subjects reported positive MR venography findings.Analysis of ROC curve of HU shows a zone under the curve of 0.966 with cut-off of 70 as well, sensitivity of 96%, specificity of 91% and accuracy of 98% was reported. And with cut-off of 68 as well, sensitivity of 92%, specificity of 84% and accuracy of 93% was reported. Conclusion: In case of acute neurologic symptoms, NECT is the most commonly requested modality. Plain CT is definite for the analysis of acute CVST in an acute context, however, the density of venous sinuses decreases as the age of the clot increases. According to our findings, the cut-off value for CVST diagnosis should be 70 HU (sensitivity 96 percent, specificity 91 percent), with no need for additional confirmatory procedures like as venography.