Biomed Pap Med Fac Univ Palacky Olomouc Czech Repub. 2015, 159(2):259-265 | DOI: 10.5507/bp.2013.082

Assessment of the severity of acute pulmonary embolism using CT pulmonary angiography parameters

Vladimir Kincla, Vera Feitovab, Roman Panovskya, Radka Stepanovac
a Department of Cardiovascular Diseases, International Clinical Research Center, St. Anne's University Hospital in Brno, Brno, Czech Republic
b Department of Imaging Methods and International Clinical Research Center, St. Anne's University Hospital in Brno, Brno
c International Clinical Research Center, St. Anne's University Hospital in Brno, Brno

Aim: To evaluate the association between computed tomography parameters and clinical signs in patients with acute pulmonary embolism.

Methods: 109 patients retrospectivelly selected from hospital database with acute pulmonary embolism verified by CT pulmonary angiography. The following parameters were assessed: pulmonary artery diameter to aorta diameter ratio (PA/Ao), normalized pulmonary artery diameter (nPA), right ventricular to left ventricular diameter ratio from CT (RV CT/LV CT), normalized end-diastolic right ventricular diameter (nRVD echo) and right to left ventricular end diastolic diameter ratio (RV echo/LV echo) from echocardiography.

Results: Multivariate regression analysis showed a significant association between PA/Ao and thrombolysed (0.99) to non-thrombolysed (0.90) patients, OR=1.56 P=0.012, and also RV CT/LV CT and thrombolysed 1.5 to non-thrombolysed (0.94) patients OR=1.24 P=0.002. The significant difference was also found in intensive care unit hospitalization necessity (ICU-Y/N) and RV CT/LV CT ratio (ICU-Y 1.42, ICU-N 0.91) OR=1.26 P=0.003, and RV echo/LV echo (ICU-Y 0.82, ICU-N 0.65) OR=1.83 P=0.033.

Conclusion: From the CT pulmonary angiography parameters, the RV CT/LV CT showed a significant association with both thrombolysis administration and ICU hospitalization. The PA/Ao had relation only to thrombolytic therapy as well as RV echo/LV echo only to ICU hospitalization.

Keywords: pulmonary embolism, risk assessment, CT angiography, clinical signs

Received: January 18, 2013; Accepted: October 22, 2013; Prepublished online: November 8, 2013; Published: June 28, 2015  Show citation

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Kincl, V., Feitova, V., Panovsky, R., & Stepanova, R. (2015). Assessment of the severity of acute pulmonary embolism using CT pulmonary angiography parameters. Biomedical papers, 159(2), 259-265. doi: 10.5507/bp.2013.082
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