Abstract
Background: Pulmonary embolism (PE) is an obstruction of the principal pulmonary artery, or one of its parts, by a material that has passed into the bloodstream from elsewhere in the body. PE is the third leading cause of cardiovascular-related mortality. Computed Tomography angiography (CTA) is the most technique of choice. The purpose of manuscript is to evaluate and summarize the role of imaging tools in diagnosis of PE in suspected patients, with particular focus on CTA. Methods and materials: This retrospective study was conducted at Taif hospitals (King AbdulAziz specialist hospital (KAASH) and King Fiasal Medical Complex (KFMC)) for two months. It included data from 1920 patients who were chosen as cases of suspected PE based on the clinical examination and referred for CTA of the chest. Patients' data were reviewed from the PACS program. Data were analyzed using Microsoft Excel version 2010. Ethical approve was obtained from our university and hospitals under investigation. Any patient with missing data or diagnosis report was excluded from study Results: Positive patient of PE that detected using CTA was 1130, 40 of them were not confirmed by laboratory test (D-dimer test). The most affected age range was (61-80 y) which represents 440 patient (39%) from total cases. Female patients were more affected by PE than male where they showed 620(55%) compared to 510(45%) patent in both gender. Conclusion: Recent data from current research associated with published data well confirmed the role of computed tomography in detecting PE.