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David G. Jacobs, MD
Charlotte, NC

Arch Surg. 2001;136:511.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

There seems to be a great deal of interest in, and enthusiasm for, the use of spiral computed tomography in the diagnosis of acute pulmonary embolism (PE), particularly among our radiological colleagues. With regard to critically ill surgical patients, such enthusiasm may be somewhat premature, as pointed out by Velmahos et al. In this small series of 22 surgical intensive care unit (SICU) patients, spiral computed tomographic pulmonary angiography (CTPA) achieved overall sensitivity and specificity rates of only 45% and 82%, respectively, when compared with conventional pulmonary angiography (PA). In fact, even duplex ultrasonography was more accurate in the prediction of PE than was CTPA. In addition to this sobering message, several other points deserve emphasis. First, in this patient population, the classic clinical findings associated with PE are of no value in identifying those patients who are ultimately found to have sustained PE. Therefore, diagnostic . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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Spiral Computed Tomography for the Diagnosis of Pulmonary Embolism in Critically Ill Surgical Patients: A Comparison With Pulmonary Angiography
George C. Velmahos, Pantelis Vassiliu, Alison Wilcox, Sue Ellen Hanks, Ali Salim, Donald Harrel, Suzanne Palmer, and Demetrios Demetriades
Arch Surg. 2001;136(5):505-510.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT