Pulmonary Embolism

Abstract

Pulmonary embolism is caused by a blood clot that travels from the deep veins through the heart and then lodges in the pulmonary vasculature. Common symptoms include pleuritic chest pain, dyspnea, or palpitations. Clinical scores such as the Wells score and Revised Geneva score can be used to assess the pretest probability of pulmonary embolism (PE) and guide work-up such as deciding to order D-dimer testing or imaging. However, clinical gestalt can also accurately assess the pretest probability of PE. The Pulmonary Embolism Rule-out Criteria is a decision rule that can be used to rule out PE without further testing. Imaging modalities include computed tomography pulmonary angiogram or ventilation/perfusion scanning. Novel or new oral anticoagulants are becoming the mainstay of treatment for the hemodynamically stable patient with pulmonary embolism. For the patient who is hemodynamically unstable, treatment modalities include intravenous alteplase, catheter-directed thrombolysis, surgical embolectomy, and catheter-directed embolectomy. A subset of patients with PE can be treated as outpatients. This review contains 1 figure, 4 tables, and 55 references. Key Words: anticoagulants, antithrombins, D-dimer, low-molecular-weight heparin, mechanical thrombolysis, multidetector computed tomography, radionuclide imaging, unfractionated heparin, pulmonary embolism, tissue plasminogen activator, warfarin