Objectives The purpose of this paper is to retrospectively analyze the medical records of DVT patients in a general hospital of a fourth-tier city in China, and find some noteworthy characteristics, so as to provide some objective evidence for the diagnosis of DVT in similar hospitals. Methods Adult patients with central LEDVT with or without pulmonary embolism (PE) were retrospectively analyzed. The general condition, concomitant diseases, laboratory tests and other clinical characteristics were analyzed. Results A total of 100 patients' medical records were analyzed. The age was non-normally distributed (p =0.004), which from 31 to 87 (65.3±11.5) years, and 58% of them were 65 years or older. Males (56%) were slightly more than females. Ninety of ninety-four patients’ D-dimer ≥1μgDDU/ml. Fifty-eight were definitely diagnosed with central LEDVT at admission, of which twenty-three were confirmed as PE by CT. Thirty-five patients with leg symptoms, thirty-three patients with chest symptoms, only two patients had both leg and chest symptoms, and thirty-four patients without any obvious symptoms of DVT when they were admitted to the hospital. Only twelve patients were admitted only with LEDVT, and most of the other patients were complicated with other system/organ diseases. Conclusions LEDVT is more common in elderly patients aged ≥ 65 years. However, the incidence of patients ≥75 years old observed in this study may be limited by the local economic situation and life expectancy. The symptoms can present as many, may be the typical leg symptoms, progression to PE may involve chest symptoms, or it may be neither leg symptoms nor chest symptoms that are masked by the symptoms of other concomitant diseases. LEDVT can be complicated with multiple system/organ diseases. It is necessary to screen for DVT in patients with abnormal D-dimer.

The authors have declared no competing interest.

The author(s) received no specific funding for this work.

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