Sub-segmental pulmonary emboli as a marker of CT-pulmonary angiogram overuse in a single-center retrospective cohort study: A dimer a dozen?

Recently, computed tomography pulmonary angiography (CTPA) has emerged as the first line modality for the diagnosis of pulmonary embolism (PE) as it is fast, reliable and widely available [1]. However, with increasing use of CTPA, there has been an associated increase in the incidence of PE with no significant change in mortality [2]. Overuse of CTPA leads to unnecessary radiation and contrast exposure, increased costs, as well as incidental findings, raising the question of over-diagnosis of clinically insignificant PEs conferring a major burden on both patients and healthcare system (2,3).

Source: Thrombosis Research - October 7, 2020 Category: Hematology Authors: Lindsey Gerstein, Maral Koolian, Blair C. Schwartz Tags: Letter to the Editors-in-Chief Source Type: research