Bj. Wintersperger et al., Evaluation of right ventricular performance in patients with acute pulmonary embolism by helical CT., ROFO-F RONT, 170(6), 1999, pp. 542-549
Citations number
30
Categorie Soggetti
Radiology ,Nuclear Medicine & Imaging
Journal title
ROFO-FORTSCHRITTE AUF DEM GEBIET DER RONTGENSTRAHLEN UND DER BILDGEBENDEN VERFAHREN
Purpose: Purpose of this study was to evaluate whether spiral-CT allows jud
gment of right ventricular failure in patients with acute pulmonary embolis
m. Materials and Methods: 61 patients underwent spiral-CT due to suspicion
of acute pulmonary embolism. Patients with pulmonary embolism were divided
into subpopulations according to the severity of pulmonary embolism in the
CT scan. Cardiac measurements were performed on axial spiral-CT images and
compared to those of patients without suspicion of pulmonary embolism or ca
rdiac diseases. Results: In 30 patients spiral-CT revealed acute pulmonary
embolism. Significant differences in cardiac measurements in patients with
severe and less severe pulmonary embolism were found on comparing the, foll
owing dimensions: left-ventricular width (p=0.0003), left (p=0.008) and rig
ht (p=0.009) ventricular cross-sectional area, proportion of right to left
ventricular width (p=0.0003) and proportion of right to left ventricular cr
oss-sectional area (p=0.0001). The proportion of the cross-sectional areas
(r=0.65) and the proportion of the width (r=0.60) of both ventricles correl
ated well with the severity of central pulmonary embolism. Conclusion: Besi
des reliable assessment of pulmonary embolism spiral-CT allows the evaluati
on of cardiac dimensions for judgment of right ventricular failure.