Unexpected Populations for Deep Vein Thrombosis: Presentation in an Endurance Athlete

This case presents an athletic 40-year-old female marathon runner who presented with a headache secondary to dural venous sinus thrombosis and right calf deep vein thrombosis (DVT). Though this is outside of the typical image we portray of a common DVT patient, athletes too experience hypercoagulable risk factors and medical issues, just as their less in-shape peers. This patient’s history of oral contraceptive use, Lynch syndrome, colon cancer, and pregnancy indicates potential risk factors for DVT. Even without these though, it is important to note that every endurance athlete experiences hemoconcentration, dehydration, and inflammation during exercise, training, and competition events. This case demonstrates the need for an increased index of suspicion in endurance athletes. The case exemplifies an all-too-frequent occurrence of allowing our differential to be skewed away from potentially life-threatening conditions like DVT, and their thrombotic sequelae, because of the “textbook population” descriptions of a given disease state. We hope this case will shed needed light on the phenomenon and lead to more controlled research on the probability and pathophysiology for thrombotic events in this broadened population so that its incidence and prevalence in endurance athletes can be accurately reported in the literature.