Year: 2025
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: This is a 200-patient retrospective single-centre study focused on evaluating the contribution of echocardiography (Echo) findings as an initial screening tool in selecting intensive care unit (ICU) patients with suspected pulmonary embolism (PE) for further diagnostic evaluation with ventilation/perfusion (V/Q) scintigraphy. These 200 patients with suspected PE were referred for a V/Q scan. Of them, 24 had Еcho findings of a dilated right ventricle (RV), and 8 of the 24 (33%) had a positive V/Q scan for PE. Seven of those 8 patients (88%) had large pulmonary emboli. Of the remaining 176 patients (without dilated RV), the V/Q scan was positive for pulmonary emboli in 39 cases (22%). If evaluating only the patients positive for pulmonary emboli on V/Q scan (47 patients), 8 of them (17%) had a dilated RV, and 39 (83%) did not have a dilated RV. Thus, we found that Еcho mainly contributed to identifying patients with life-threatening large pulmonary thrombo-embolic disease. In contrast to the above, echocardiography was non-contributory in the presence of small PE. This finding was in congruence with the existing literature.
DOI: 10.3897/jbcr.e144757
Authors: Vladimir M. Grigorov, Jan D. Esser, Mladen V. Grigorov, Valentina Y. Belcheva, Evgeni E. Grigorov, Maya P. Radeva-Ilieva
Language: English
Subfield: Internal Medicine
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4411456622