Newer diagnostic modalities for pulmonary embolism - Pulmonary angiographyusing CT and MR imaging compared with conventional angiography

CTPA is a highly sensitive and excellent primary method for evaluation of p atients with symptoms of pulmonary embolism Ongoing studies will demonstrat e the good clinical outcome of patients with negative CTPA results. The abi lity to visualize the lung parenchyma in addition to the pulmonary vasculat ure, and the smaller number of nondiagnostic scans, make CT more cost effec tive than V/Q scans, and CT therefore should be used as a first-line evalua tion. MR imaging is a continually developing modality with more imaging opt ions that could make it an invaluable or adjunctive test in the near future .