Journal of Biomedical and Clinical Research 18: 171-179, doi: 10.3897/jbcr.e144757
The value of echocardiography in predicting pulmonary thromboembolic disease
Vladimir M. Grigorov‡, Jan D. Esser§, Mladen V. Grigorov|, Valentina Y. Belcheva¶, Evgeni E. Grigorov#, Maya P. Radeva-Ilieva#‡ Medical University – Pleven, Pleven, Bulgaria§ Arwyp Medical Centre, Kempton Park, South Africa| Sveti Georgi Multi-Profile Hospital for Active Treatment, Montana, Bulgaria¶ Trakia University – Medical College, Stara Zagora, Bulgaria# Medical University – Varna, Varna, Bulgaria
Corresponding author: Evgeni E. Grigorov ( evgeni.grigorov@mu-varna.bg ) Academic editor: Galya Stavreva © Vladimir M. Grigorov, Jan D. Esser, Mladen V. Grigorov, Valentina Y. Belcheva, Evgeni E. Grigorov, Maya P. Radeva-Ilieva. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Citation:
Grigorov VM, Esser JD, Grigorov MV, Belcheva VY, Grigorov EE, Radeva-Ilieva MP (2025) The value of echocardiography in predicting pulmonary thromboembolic disease. Journal of Biomedical and Clinical Research 18: 171-179. https://doi.org/10.3897/jbcr.e144757 |  |
Abstract
This is a 200-patient retrospective single-centre study focused on evaluating the contribution of echocardiography (Echo) findings as an initial screening tool in selecting intensive care unit (ICU) patients with suspected pulmonary embolism (PE) for further diagnostic evaluation with ventilation/perfusion (V/Q) scintigraphy. These 200 patients with suspected PE were referred for a V/Q scan. Of them, 24 had Еcho findings of a dilated right ventricle (RV), and 8 of the 24 (33%) had a positive V/Q scan for PE. Seven of those 8 patients (88%) had large pulmonary emboli. Of the remaining 176 patients (without dilated RV), the V/Q scan was positive for pulmonary emboli in 39 cases (22%). If evaluating only the patients positive for pulmonary emboli on V/Q scan (47 patients), 8 of them (17%) had a dilated RV, and 39 (83%) did not have a dilated RV. Thus, we found that Еcho mainly contributed to identifying patients with life-threatening large pulmonary thrombo-embolic disease. In contrast to the above, echocardiography was non-contributory in the presence of small PE. This finding was in congruence with the existing literature.
Keywords
Echocardiography, prediction, pulmonary thromboembolic disease, value