AIMS Although acute venous thrombo-embolism (VTE) often afflicts patients with advanced age, the predictors of in-hospital mortality for elderly VTE patients are unknown. METHODS AND RESULTS Among 1247 consecutive patients with acute VTE from the prospective SWIss Venous ThromboEmbolism Registry (SWIVTER), 644 (52%) were elderly (≥65 years of age). In comparison to younger patients, the elder...

Obstructive sleep apnoea is a risk factor for pulmonary embolism. Elevated D-dimer levels and other biomarkers are associated with recurrent pulmonary embolism. The objectives were to compare the frequency of elevated D-dimer levels (>500 ng·mL(-1)) and further coagulation biomarkers after oral anticoagulation withdrawal in pulmonary embolism patients, with and without obstructive sleep apnoea,...

Pulmonary embolism is a very dangerous difficult-to-detect medical condition. To diagnose pulmonary embolism, medical practitioners combine indirect signs of this condition into a single score, and then classify patients into low-probability, intermediate-probability, and high-probability categories. Empirical analysis shows that, when we move from each category to the next one, the probability...

The incidence of venous thromboembolism after major trauma has been estimated to be as high as 60%, despite appropriate prophylaxis. Pulmonary embolism is associated with deep venous thrombosis and also with significant rates of morbidity and mortality. This study examined risk factors for pulmonary embolism among patients with pelvic and lower-extremity fractures in the National Trauma Data Ba...

BACKGROUND The limitations of the current diagnostic standard, ventilation-perfusion lung scanning, complicate the management of patients with suspected pulmonary embolism. We previously demonstrated that determining the pretest probability can assist with management and that the high negative predictive value of certain D -dimer assays may simplify the diagnostic process. OBJECTIVE To determ...

Background. Pulmonary embolism is a common and potentially lethal condition. Most patients who die from massive pulmonary embolism do so within the first few hours of the event. The clinical manifestations of pulmonary embolism are nonspecific, which makes the diagnosis difficult. Case Report. We present a case of massive pulmonary embolism presenting as an acute surgical abdomen that underwent...

INTRODUCTION Coexistence of pulmonary embolism and systemic arterial embolism suggest the diagnosis of paradoxical embolism which suggests the presence of intracardiac defects such as patent foramen ovale (PFO). CASE PRESENTATION A 42 year old man was found to have a paradoxical embolism in the systemic arterial circulation, in the setting of pulmonary embolism and deep vein thrombosis (DVT) ...

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, ...