The Application Of Radiology In Pulmonary Embolism

Objective: To evaluate the clinical value of electron beam tomography(EBCT) in diagnosis of pulmonary embolism(PE).Materials and Methods: Seventy-six consecutive patients (52 men and 24 women), aged 51.3 ±13.2 years, with clinical diagnosis of PE underwent EBCT before March 2004. EBCT was performed using Imatron C-150 scanner with enhanced continuum volume scan(CVS).The slice thickness was 3mm with scan time of 0.1s. The total amount of contrast media(Omnipaque-300) was from 50-100ml, 3.0-4.0 ml/s of the flow rate, delayed time were 14~25s.Results: Deep venous thrombosis(DVT) was found in 58 of 76 patients (76.3%),8 of them had not definite causes(10.6%).Among 2356 pulmonary artery branches in 76 cases, 1668 branches were involved with PE (70.8 %) ,and 546 branches were center pulmonary artery(32.71%), 1123 peripheral pulmonary arteries (67.29%). 14 branches of the main pulmonary artery were involved(0.84%). The right segmental pulmonary arteries with PE were more than the left segmental arteries, 36.85% and 30.44% respectively. 741 branches of the left pulmonary and 913 branches of the right pulmonary arteries were involved in PE(44.4% and 54.7% respectively). Thrombus morphology: center type was the specific sign of acute thrombus, include 'railway signs' and 'drifting signs' et al. Mural and total occlusion thrombus was seen in both acute and chronic groups with not significant differences. Mural and occlusion type were main form of the chronic PE, and the thrombus calcification was the specific signs of chronic PE. The indirect signs include mosaic signs, enlargement of the right ventricle and atrium, pulmonary artery enlargement, pulmonary infarction, pericardium and/or pleural effusion, pulmonary atelectasis or pulmonary...