INTRODUCTION Several outcome studies have ruled out acute pulmonary embolism (PE) by normal computed tomography pulmonary angiography (CTPA). We performed a meta-analysis in order to determine the safety of this strategy in a specific group of patients with a strict indication for CTPA, that is, 'likely' or 'high' clinical probability for PE, an elevated D-dimer concentration, or both. METHOD...

BACKGROUND Computed tomography pulmonary angiography (CTPA) may improve the diagnostic capabilities of CT imaging for invasive mold disease, but its performance relative to other signs (ie, halo sign, hypodense sign, pleural effusion, reversed halo sign) is unknown. METHODS We prospectively compared the diagnostic performance of CTPA vs other CT imaging findings in 100 patients with hematolog...

embolism cases by V/Q scan. Method During Jun 2008 to Apr 2010, patients with acute pulmonary embolism underwent both ventilationeperfusion scintigraphy (V/Q scan) and spiral CT pulmonary angiography (CTPA) were systematically reviewed. The patients were grouped by results of CTPA. Group 1: CTPA showed that the main pulmonary or lobe arteries were involved; Group 2: CTPA showed that the thrombi...

BACKGROUND CT pulmonary angiography (CTPA) has become widely adopted to detect pulmonary embolism (PE) after total joint arthroplasty (TJA). CTPA is a sensitive tool, which has the ability to detect emboli that may be clinically insignificant. This may lead to iatrogenic harm from overtreatment. QUESTIONS/PURPOSES The purpose of this study was to assess changing prevalence, mortality, treatme...

INTRODUCTION The purpose of this study is to analyze the frequency of other diagnoses and findings in patients that were diagnosed with or not diagnosed with PE following the CTPA in the ED and to analyze the relationship between diagnosis and D-dimer. INSTRUMENT AND METHOD: This study involves all patients that presented to the ED that underwent CTPA with the prediagnosis of PE. The items cons...

Computed tomography pulmonary angiography (CTPA) has become the gold standard imaging technique in the evaluation of patients with suspected pulmonary thromboembolism (PTE).1 PTE – acute or chronic – is confirmed on CTPA by filling defects in the pulmonary arteries. Several factors, whether technical or diseaseor patient-related, can result in a suboptimal, low-quality CTPA, which can be misint...

BACKGROUND The increased use of computed tomography pulmonary angiography (CTPA) is often justified by finding alternative diagnoses explaining patients' symptoms. However, this has not been rigorously examined. METHODS We retrospectively reviewed CTPA done at our center over an eleven year period (2000 - 2010) in patients with suspected pulmonary embolus (PE). We then reviewed in detail the ...

Background: Pulmonary embolism (PE) is a common disease in the USA responsible for up to 10% of hospital mortality. Modified wells score (MWS) and D-dimer assay are used to categorize patients into high or low probability of PE. Patient with high probability need Computed tomography pulmonary angiography (CTPA), while patients with low probability and low D-dimer can safely forgo the CTPA. Obje...

introduction: listeria monocytogenes is a gram positive bacterium, often found in the environment and is responsible for serious food-borne diseases such as perinatal infections, septicaemia and meningoencephalitis in humans and animals. for this reason, distribution of the ctp a (copper transport protein a) among l. monocytogenes was isolated from clinical, environment, dairy, and poultry samp...

conclusion there is still excessive unjustified concern of pte in less trained physicians leading to excessive diagnostic work-up. loyalty to the existing guideline for management of suspected pte in educational hospitals and supervision of attending physicians could prevent overuse of ctpa. results during a 6-month period, 82 patients who underwent ctpa were included. the prevalence of pte was...