The trial included ninety-five consecutive outpatients admitted with symptoms and signs suggesting deep venous thrombosis. Blood samples were collected on admission and analysed when the trial was ended. The three different D-dimer methods were BC D-dimer, Tinaquant D-dimer (both quantitative latex agglutination methods) and VIDAS D-dimer, based on the ELISA principle. Ultrasound was used as the reference method, but the outcome evaluated at three month follow up was the gold standard. The sensitivities of the three different methods were 66% (95% confidence interval 55-75%), 93% (88-98%) and 98% (94-100%) respectively. The negative predictive values were respectively 71% (62-80%), 88% (81-95%) and 95% (91-99%). This trial confirms that VIDAS D-dimer has a high sensitivity and negative predictive value that makes it suitable for clinical use. The same conclusion can be drawn for the Tinaquant D-dimer. The trial also emphasizes the importance of testing new methods under routine clinical conditions.