Saturday, August 10, 2013

Pulmonary embolism - recommended investigations

RCOG Guidelines

1. Where there is clinical suspicion of acute PE a chest X-ray should be performed. 


2. Compression duplex Doppler should be performed where chest X-ray is normal. 

3. If both tests are negative with persistent clinical suspicion of acute PE, a ventilation–perfusion (V/Q) lung scan or a computed tomography pulmonary angiogram (CTPA) should be performed. 

4. Alternative or repeat testing should be carried out where V/Q scan or CTPA and duplex Doppler are normal but the clinical suspicion of PE is high. 

Anticoagulant treatment should be continued until PE is definitively excluded.

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