HE PATHOGENESIS of the syndrome "primary pulmonary arterial hyper-tension has been the subject of inereasing interest in recent years.12 The syndrome is characterized by pulmonary arterial hypertension in the absence of significant primary pulmonary parenchymatous disease or primary cardiac disorder. The hypertension has usually been attributed to pulmonary vascular lesions, which increase the ...

This paper proposes an efficient customized level set algorithm to segment Pulmonary Artery (PA) tree in 3D pulmonary Computed Tomography Angiography (CTA) images. In this algorithm, to reduce the search area the lung regions from the original image are first segmented and the heart region is extracted by selecting the regions between the lungs. A pre-processing algorithm based on Hessian matri...

A 69-year old bed-bound woman presented with chest pain and diaphoresis. Diagnostic imaging led to the diagnosis of bilateral extensive pulmonary emboli extending into all segmental branches. Tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) was administered via 2 separate EKOS catheters. Repeat evaluation after 33 hours revealed improvement of right ventricular size and function. EKOS catheters are useful fo...

Young healthy women without a genetic predisposition are considered to be at low risk for deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary emboli. We present an unusual case of pulmonary embolism in a 21-year-old female competitive rower likely caused by oral contraception and trauma of the axillary-subclavian vein by extrinsic compression due to repetitive arm movements.

A 42-year-old woman with choriocarcinoma required emergency pulmonary embolectomy under cardiopulmonary bypass. After diagnosis of choriocarcinoma was confirmed by examination of tumor emboli specimens, the patient was treated and had complete remission by chemotherapy over a 6-month period. Although rare, choriocarcinoma should be considered in the differential diagnosis of fertile women prese...

BACKGROUND It is unknown whether the observed increase in computed tomography pulmonary angiography (CTPA) utilization has resulted in increased detection of pulmonary emboli (PEs) with a less severe disease spectrum. METHODS Trends in utilization, diagnostic yield, and disease severity were evaluated for 4,048 consecutive initial CTPAs performed in adult patients in the emergency department ...

Emboli in transit in right atrium are rare. When they occur, they are associated to high rate of pulmonary embolism and mortality. This is a case report on an embolus in transit in right chambers, with clinical suspicion of pulmonary thromboembolism. Diagnosis was obtained through transesophageal echocardiography. The patient had a positive response post-anticoagulation. The team discussed pres...

A case report of a patient with malignant renal neoplasm who underwent emergency pulmonary embolectomy during operation is presented. Knowledge of degree of venous extension, appropriate operative positioning of the patient and consideration of elective cardiopulmonary bypass are suggested ways to reduce morbidity and mortality from massive pulmonary emboli in these patients.