D-DIMER, QUANTITATIVE

D-DIMER

A D-dimer test is a blood test that can be used to help rule out the presence of a serious blood clot.

When you get a cut, your body takes a bunch of steps to make your blood clump up. It’s a normal part of healing  without it, you’d keep bleeding and have a much more serious problem to deal with.

Once the bleeding stops, you don’t need the clot anymore. So your body takes a series of steps in the other direction and breaks the clot down.

One of those leftovers is called D-dimer. It’s part of a protein. Normally, with a little time, it goes away. But you can get high levels of D-dimer in your blood if you have a major clot like with deep vein thrombosis (DVT).

With DVT, you have a clot deep in one of your veins, usually in your legs, and it can lead to serious problems.