Thrombophilia testing in mesenteric venous thrombosis, when to screen

Al-Samkari et al. present an approach to thrombophilia testing in patients with splanchnic vein thrombosis (SVT) (1). They suggest an algorithm highlighting the importance to screen for local precipitating factors and any blood count disturbances before testing for thrombophilia including Janus kinase 2 v617F mutation (JAK2) (1). Authors state that the majority of these local precipitating factors will be diagnosed or excluded on the computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), modalities frequently used for diagnosis of SVT in the vast majority of cases (1,2).