Leading Authority Reviews Advances in Pulmonary Embolism Diagnosis and Treatment

Henry I. Bussey, Pharm.D., FCCP, FAHA
April 2004

Review: Goldhaber, S Z. Pulmonary embolism. The Lancet 2004; 363:1295-1305.

The April 17, 2004 issue of the Lancet contains a state-of-the-art review by Samuel Z. Goldhaber, M.D. on pulmonary embolism (PE) diagnosis and treatment. Dr. Goldhaber first reviews predisposing factors for PE and discusses the presenting signs and symptoms. The importance of D-dimer testing to rule out PE and the emergence of computerized tomography as the preferred diagnostic tests are also discussed. Dr. Goldhaber also examines the importance of risk stratification based on clinical hemodynamics, echocardiography, and troponin levels in order to identify those individuals who may require thrombolytic therapy or embolectomy. Finally, Dr. Goldhaber discusses the importance of providing at-risk patients with appropriate venous thromboembolism prophylaxis both in the hospital and after discharge. The article also provides an easy to follow diagram to guide the clinician in diagnosing and risk stratifying the suspected PE patient.

The abstract of the article is available free of charge on PubMed, a service of the National Library of Medicine, at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=15094276.