Loading...
With the advent of multidetector computed tomographic pulmonary angiography, we have seen an increase in the detection of small emboli — known as subsegmental pulmonary emboli (SSPE) — in peripheral pulmonary arteries. But whether these emboli are clinically relevant is unclear.
To address this issue, investigators in the Netherlands assessed 3728 evaluable patients with suspected pulmonary emboli (PE) previously enrolled in two venous thromboembolism (VTE) studies. Patients were divided into three groups: 116 with SSPE, 632 with proximal PE, and 2980 in whom PE was excluded. The prevalence of older age, male gender, recent surgery, and estrogen use was similar in patients with SSPE or proximal PE, but these risk factors were significantly l…