Value of Use Chest Ultrasound in Diagnosis of Pulmonary Embolism

Background: Pulmonary embolism (PE) is a serious cardiovascular disease. Its symptoms are vague and resemble many other diseases. So diagnosis carries a great challenge.

Aim: Aim of this study is to assess value of chest ultrasound in diagnosis of pulmonary embolism using computed tomography pulmonary angiography (CTPA) as a gold standard.

Material and Method: In this study seventy three patients of suspected pulmonary embolism were evaluated in the period between June 2018 to October 2019 at the emergence department of chest, cardiology and internal medicine departments at Minia University Hospital. The patients were included according to inclusion criteria listed later. The patients were evaluated clinically and assess risk factors and probability scores (modified wells criteria). Then,Thoracic Ultrasonography (TUS) was done. Multi-slice computed tomography (MSCT) was the reference gold standard method in this study. MSCT scans were interpreted by a radiologist who was unaware of the TUS results. Predictive value of chest ultrasound in diagnosis of pulmonary embolism was evaluated by measuring sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), and negative predictive values (NPVs) of thoracic ultrasonography.

Results: In this study, sensitivity, specificity, PPV, NPV, and accuracy of chest ultrasound (CUS) for PE diagnosis were 81.25%, 95%, 98.3%, 77.3% and 87% respectively.

Conclusion: TUS is abedside, safe, easily available, noninvasive method for early diagnosis of PE in emergency department and in situations where CTPE couldn’t be used.