Aims and objectives
Acute pulmonary embolism (PE) is a common and possibly lethal condition.Approximately 2% of in hospital death are attributed to PE (1).
Delays in pulmonary embolism diagnosis are frequentin spite of diagnostic advances(2).
CT pulmonary angiogram (CTPA) is the gold standard for diagnosing PE and is used when there is a clinical suspicion of PE (3).CTPA allows visualization of clots in the pulmonary arteries (4). To diagnose PE on CTPA,
it must fullfill the accepted criteria which are
Lack of opacification of the vascular lumen due...
Methods and materials
Study Design:
A retrospective,
single institution (Letterkenny General Hospital,
Donegal,
Ireland) study of 473 patients with suspected pulmonary embolism who underwent CTPAfrom June 2011 to June 2013 was conducted.
Subject Selection:
The inclusion criteria were patients with clinical suspicion of PE and a CTPA requested by an attendingcinicianin the Emergency Department (ED) or inpatient secvice.
Data Acquisition:
Data from patients was collected from radiology requests,
radiology reports and histopathology reports.
The data collected included; presenting complaint,
past medical history,
signs and symptoms,
laboratory results ,...
Results
1-Table 1.
Descriptive analysisof the data.
The total number of patients included in the study was (n=473),
of whom there were (n=214) males and (n=259) females.
Males constituted 45.2% of the study sample,
whereas females constituted 54.8%.
There was a statistically significant difference in terms of the proportions of men and women in the study sample (p = 0.019).
Females outnumber males by 9.5%.
2-In terms of age,
the mean age was 63.1 years (Standard Deviation (SD) = 17.4 years,
Range between 16 and 98...
Conclusion
From our study,
we found thatit was not possible to distinguish whether a patient had a PE based on clinical findings and oximetry.
For patients with suspected PE,
clinical and oximetry findings were similar.
The frequency of positive PE in this studyis in line with international studies.
D-Dimer was positive in 100% of patients with PE in this study.
In incidental findings,
there is a correlation between pathology and radiologic findings.
Personal information
Fauzah Mohamad (
[email protected])
Nurul Hasanah Ikhsan
Dr Colm O'Donnell
Dr Mugtaba Osman
References
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