الفهرس 
AnatomyOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Pulmonary embolism (PE) is a common condition with considerable morbidity and mortality. Prompt and accurate diagnosis is difficult because PE may be clinically silent, the symptoms are vague and nonspecific, and in addition there is no definitive, non-invasive diagnostic test to establish its diagnosis.
By 2001, MSCT scanning of the chest was being used more often than V/Q scanning to investigate suspected PE and can image the entire chest with sub- millimeter resolution and requires a breath hold of less than 10 seconds.
Our aim was to study the role of MSCT in diagnosis of pulmonary embolism.
Between April 2012 and August 2014, 46 patients with suspected pulmonary emboli based on clinical presentation and/or positive D-dimer test were referred from emergency, chest and I.C.U departments to the radiodiagnosis department at Luxor International Hospital for further assessment by MDCT.
All the patients were subjected to full history taking, clinical examination and CT pulmonary angiography using a CT scanner with four detector arrays.
The MSCT pulmonary angiography of the 46 patients showed that 65% had pulmonary embolism, 35% had other diagnosis including pneumonia in 15%, pleural effusion in 9%, bronchogenic carcinoma in 7% and interstitial lung disease in 4% of the patients.
The age range of our pulmonary embolism patients was from 19 to 84 years with a mean age of 51 years and females were more affected (60 %) than males (40 %).
The most frequently encountered clinical presentation among patients with PE was dyspnea in 36.6% followed by acute chest pain in 26.6%, tachypnea in 22.2% and cyanosis in 13.9% patients. These presentations occurred separately or in conjunction in the same patient.