Amna Malik, Basma Khan.
Role of Chest X-ray in Radiological Diagnosis of Pulmonary Embolism.
J Fatima Jinnah Med Uni Jan ;11(2):44-6.

Background: Current study aims to evaluate the significance of chest X-ray in patients of pulmonary embolism. Methods: This 6 months cross-sectional study was conducted in the Department of Diagnostic Radiology in collaboration with Department of Cardiology, PIC, Lahore. A total of 100 patients with clinical suspicion of pulmonary embolism was enrolled in this study. All the data was entered into SPSS version 20 and simple percentages were calculated. Results: In this study, 72% of the X-rays chest were abnormal in patients with clinical suspicion of pulmonary embolism and the most common chest X-ray abnormality was cardiomegaly (35.5%). CTPA was positive in 45% of the abnormal chest X-rays and the remaining abnormal chest X-rays show no pulmonary embolism. Whereas 55% patients with normal chest X-rays also showed pulmonary embolism on CTPA Conclusion: Majority of the patients with clinical symptoms of pulmonary embolism usually have negative X-ray chest, relevance of which is only to rule out other pulmonary pathologies.

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