The effectiveness of new diagnostic tools for suspected pulmonary embolism (PE), such as clinical probability assessment, plasma D-dimer (DD) measurement and lower limb venous compression ultrasonography (US), has not been specifically studied in patients with a suspected PE occurring during hospital stay. This study applied a sequential, decision analysis-based strategy adding these instrument...

OBJECTIVE To determine the value of D-Dimers assay in the diagnosis of Pulmonary Embolism (PE) at Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, Rawalpindi, Pakistan from January to November 2000. METHODS Forty three consecutive patients clinically suspected of suffering from pulmonary embolism and referred to Armed Forces Institute of Pathology for Ventilation-Perfusion scan of lungs were inducted in ...

The study of the elimination of an inert gas from the lungs of human individuals has proven a useful tool in the determination of ventilation patterns (1, 2). In particular it could be demonstrated that the lungs of emphysematous patients can be conceived as being composed of at least two different compartments, i.e., a relatively small space with good ventilation and a relatively large space w...

BACKGROUND Lymphangioleiomyomatosis (LAM) and angiomyolipoma are two different, but related rare diseases. To the best of our knowledge, pulmonary LAM and pulmonary angiomyolipoma have not previously been observed in the same patient. CASE PRESENTATION A 38-year-old woman presented with a dry cough and left flank pain. She had a right nephrectomy for renal angiomyolipoma 17 years ago. A magne...

A78-year-old woman presented with a 2-month history of worsening dyspnea, orthopnea, and cough with hemoptysis. Her past medical history was significant for hypertension and severe mitral regurgitation for which she had undergone mitral valve repair 3 years previously. In addition, she had recurrent atrial tachycardia requiring 2 radiofrequency ablations, which included ablation of several left...

Radionuclide studies were performed to determine pulmonary blood flow in six children who had undergone surgery for pulmonary atresia, ventricular septal defect, and hypoplastic pulmonary arteries with or without major aortopulmonary collateral arteries. Lung blood flow was assessed from both particle perfusion lung scans and the pulmonary and systemic phase of a radionuclide dynamic flow study...

The use of computed tomography of chest(CT Chest) for evaluation of acute dyspnea has increased 5 folds in the last decade, and is the preferred investigation of choice for diagnosing pulmonary embolism(PE), although studies have shown equal efficacy of CT scan and ventilation and perfusion(V/Q) scan. The modern multidectector CT Chest can reliably identify smaller clots even in sub segmental p...

CT scanning allows assessment of airway-wall thickness and is useful for diagnosing and assessing various lung diseases, including asthma and COPD. Several studies have reported that CT scan-estimated dimensions are positively correlated with pulmonary function test results and a positive response to treatment. However, to our knowledge, airway disease complicated by inflammatory bowel disease ...

Pulmonary embolism, a medical emergency for pulmonary physicians, is defined as a blockage of the main artery of the lung or one of its branches by embolism, from many sources, such as thrombus, air, amniotic fluid, tumor, or fat.1 A good clinician, especially a pulmonary or critical care physician, should consider the possible diagnosis of pulmonary embolism in a highly suspected patient, sinc...

BACKGROUND In patients with a low clinical probability of pulmonary embolism (PE) and a nondiagnostic lung scan, the prevalence of PE is theoretically very low. We assessed the safety and usefulness of this association for ruling out PE. METHODS We analyzed data from 2 consecutive cohort management studies performed in 2 university hospitals (Geneva University Hospital, Geneva, Switzerland, a...