OBJECTIVES To assess the likelihood ratios of diagnostic strategies for pulmonary embolism and to determine their clinical application according to pretest probability. DATA SOURCES Medline, Embase, and Pascal Biomed and manual search for articles published from January 1990 to September 2003. STUDY SELECTION Studies that evaluated diagnostic tests for confirmation or exclusion of pulmonary...

Pulmonary vein thrombosis (PVT) is a rare but potentially lethal disease. It most commonly occurs as a complication of malignancy, post-lung surgery or atrial fibrillation. Thrombi are typically detected using a variety of imaging modalities including transesophageal echo, CT-scan, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or pulmonary angiography. Treatment consists of anticoagulation. Here we report a...

BACKGROUND Pulmonary embolism is a common clinical disorder that is associated with high morbidity and mortality if untreated. It is important to confirm or rule out the diagnosis in patients with clinical suspicion of the disease. PURPOSE To evaluate various diagnostic strategies for excluding pulmonary embolism. DATA SOURCES MEDLINE (1966 to February 2003), EMBASE, and DARE; study investi...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate accuracy of Computed Tomography (CT) for diagnosing malignancy in solitary pulmonary lesions (SPLs). METHODS A prospective cross-sectional study was conducted from 20-01-2007 to 30-06-2008 at the Radiology department, Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH) Karachi. Fifty-three patients with solitary pulmonary lesions (SPLs) seen in prior chest x-rays or chest CT scans were ...

 Carcinosarcoma is a rare type of cancer that is composed of a mixture of sarcomatous and carcinomatous elements. Pulmonary carcinosarcoma has a 25% five-year survival rate with a prognosis poorer than other non-small cell lung carcinomas. Herein, we report a case of pulmonary carcinosarcoma and its 18F-FDG PET/CT findings. A 61-year-old male patient presented with brain symptoms, including hea...

OBJECTIVE Our main aim was to investigate the effect of dynamic and contrast enhanced CT imaging on differential diagnosis of lung carcinoma, pulmonary tuberculoma, inflammatory pseudotumor, and coexisting pulmonary tuberculosis and lung cancer. PATIENTS AND METHODS About, 144 patients with pulmonary sarcoidosis as the study subjects were chosen which included: 36 patients with lung carcinoma...

Introduction : Diagnosis of peripheral pulmonary nodules is confusing; therefore, an accurate and safe lung biopsy can prevent unnecessary invasive diagnostic procedures. This study soughtto study the diagnostic yield, sensitivity, specificity, and negative and positive predictive values (NPV and PPV) of radial probe endobronchial ultrasound (EBUS)-guided biopsy for peripheral pulmonary lesions...

Aspergillus ochraceus is a rare pulmonary pathogen. A 39 year old male with COPD and chronic granulomatous disease presented with severe breathlessness and recurrent infections. CT scan demonstrated multiple pulmonary nodules diagnosed as chronic pulmonary aspergillosis. The patient's sputum grew Aspergillus ochraceus thrice over 6 months, alongside positive Aspergillus IgG and serum galactoman...