TAPSE as a Prognostic Tool in Pulmonary Embolism
Last week we posted an article on acute pulmonary embolism in echocardiography. In that post we discussed how echo is good for ruling-in pulmonary embolism but not for ruling-out a pulmonary embolism.
pulmonary embolism
Pulmonary Embolism in Echo
In the early days of our blog (2015) we published an article on the diagnosis of pulmonary embolism in echo. Since then our audience has grown and additional research results have been published. This week we will review this past article and provide updates based on the latest studies.
Echo in Pulmonary Embolism…the clot thickens
Pulmonary embolism continues to cause at least 60,000 deaths per year in the United States according to CDC statistics. Ten percent of symptomatic pulmonary emboli are fatal within one hour of symptoms onset. However, diagnosis can often be difficult because the presenting signs and symptoms are nonspecific and often mimic other cardiac and pulmonary diseases. Interventional strategies to remove or dissolve thrombi continue to improve. With these improvements, our ability to understand and diagnose also needs to improve. Echocardiography can aid in the diagnosis of pulmonary embolism and provides important functional information about the right and left ventricle that cannot be ascertained from other tests.