mohammad taghi niknezhad

Right ventricle failure and massive pulmonary artery occlusion are the main causes of mortality in patients with acute pulmonary embolism. Although pulmonary CT angiography could be helpful in these patients there are some controversies. In current study we want to investigate correlation between pulmonary artery obstruction score and right ventricular dysfunction with mortality rate in patients with acute pulmonary embolism.

Pulmonary CT angiography of 76 patients with acute pulmonary embolism and no previous comorbidity were reviewed at this prospective study. Maximum short axis dimensions of the right ventricle (RVD) and the left ventricle (LVD) and their ratio were measured. The pulmonary artery obstruction score (PAOS) was determined according to Qanadli. At the end the correlation between these findings and mortality at first 60 days were evaluated.

The 60-days mortality rate was 19.7%. The expired and survived groups were comparable for PAOS, whereas both the median age and RVD/LVD ratio were significantly higher in the first group. In multivariate analysis, however, age was the only significant, independent predictor of 60-day mortality (p=0.02).

Without pre-existing morbidities, neither the RVD/LVD ratio nor PAOS is not an independent predictor of mortality in hemodynamically stable patients with acute PE.