Abstract:
Pulmonary embolism is an important clinical entity with
considerable mortality despite advances in diagnosis and
treatment. The European guidelines for the diagnosis and
management of PE report annual incidence rates of venous
thrombosis and PE of approximately 0.5 to 1.0 per 1000
inhabitants. However, the actual figures are likely to be
substantially higher because silent PE can develop in up to
40% to 50% of patients with deep vein thrombosis (DVT). If
untreated, acute PE is associated with a significant mortality
rate (as high as 30%), whereas the death rate of diagnosed
and treated PE is 8%. It was estimated that 59% are deaths
resulting from PE that remained undiagnosed during life
and only 7% of the patients who died early are correctly
diagnosed with PE before death. About 20% of patients with
PE belong to the group with massive PE, 47% with submassive and the remaining 33% consist of small PE.
