responsible for 50 000 to 100 000 deaths each year in the United States. A pulmonary embolism is an obstruction of the pulmonary artery or one of its branches by a thrombus. The signs and symptoms range from massive pulmonary embolism that results in unstable hemodynamic status to a small peripheral embolus that can be asymptomatic. To aid in the delineation of the types of pulmonary embolism, ...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE Pulmonary embolism is potentially life-threatening in patients with lung cancer, but the clinical studies on patients with lung cancer having asymptomatic pulmonary embolism were barely reported. METHODS Clinical data of patients with lung cancer were obtained from the Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine of Tianjin Chest Hospital during July 2012 and ...

CONTEXT Previous studies have evaluated the safety of relatively complex combinations of clinical decision rules and diagnostic tests in patients with suspected pulmonary embolism. OBJECTIVE To assess the clinical effectiveness of a simplified algorithm using a dichotomized clinical decision rule, D-dimer testing, and computed tomography (CT) in patients with suspected pulmonary embolism. D...

Recent clinical studies have shed new light on the diagnosis of venous thromboembolism. Pulmonary embolism continues to be difficult to diagnose because the definitive test, pulmonary angiography, is complex and not widely available. However, new knowledge about ventilation perfusion lung scanning and non-invasive leg studies can help to reduce the need for pulmonary angiography. Furthermore, t...

BACKGROUND The prevalence of pulmonary embolism among patients hospitalized for syncope is not well documented, and current guidelines pay little attention to a diagnostic workup for pulmonary embolism in these patients. METHODS We performed a systematic workup for pulmonary embolism in patients admitted to 11 hospitals in Italy for a first episode of syncope, regardless of whether there were...

Background—Heart diseases increase the risk of arterial embolism; whether they increase the risk of pulmonary embolism without peripheral venous thrombosis is less certain. Methods and Results—We conducted a nationwide, population-based case-control study in Denmark using patients diagnosed with pulmonary embolism and/or deep venous thrombosis between 1980 and 2007. We computed odds ratios to e...

OBJECTIVES The aim of our study was to assess the value of transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) in predicting embolic events (EEs) in a large group of patients with definite endocarditis according to the Duke criteria, including silent embolism. BACKGROUND The value of echocardiography in predicting embolism in patients with endocarditis remains controversial. Some studies reported an increas...

BACKGROUND There are few population-based data regarding the effectiveness of inferior vena cava filter use in the prevention of symptomatic pulmonary embolism. OBJECTIVE To determine the 1-year cumulative incidence of rehospitalization for venous thrombosis or pulmonary embolism among patients with thromboembolism treated with a vena cava filter compared with the incidence in a control popul...

OBJECTIVES The aim of our study was to assess the value of transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) in predicting embolic events (EEs) in a large group of patients with definite endocarditis according to the Duke criteria, including silent embolism. BACKGROUND The value of echocardiography in predicting embolism in patients with endocarditis remains controversial. Some studies reported an incre...

OBJECTIVE: To assess the value of parameters derived from arterial blood gas tests in the diagnosis of pulmonary embolism. METHOD: We measured alveolar-arterial partial pressure of oxygen [P(A-a)O2] gradient, PaO2 and arterial partial pressure of carbon diaxide (PaCO2) in 773 consecutive patients with suspected pulmonary embolism who were enrolled in the Prospective Investigative Study of Acute...