• Gursel Cok, Mehmet Sezai Tasbakan, Naim Ceylan, Selen Bayraktaroglu, and Soner Duman.
• Department of Chest Disease, School of Medicine, Ege University, Bornova, 35100 Izmir, Turkey. gurselcok@gmail.com
• Jpn J Radiol. 2013 Mar 1; 31 (3): 172-8.

PurposeOur aim was to investigate the role of computed tomography pulmonary angiography (CTPA) in the diagnosis of right ventricular dysfunction (RVD) and massive pulmonary thromboembolism (PTE).Materials And MethodsWe retrospectively involved a total of 61 patients. In CTPAs, pulmonary arterial obstruction index (PAOI), right ventricular/left ventricular diameter ratio (RV/LV), and superior vena cava (SVC) diameters were calculated, followed by echocardiography (ECHO), and clinical results were evaluated based on the reports available.ResultsCTPA findings that included PAOI, RV/LV ratio, and SVC diameter were, respectively, 54.9 ± 22.7 %, 1.58 ± 0.51, and 20.3 ± 0.2 mm in patients with RVD on ECHO, whereas corresponding values were, respectively, 37.8 ± 24.2 %, 1.32 ± 0.47, and 18.4 ± 3.3 mm in those without RVD (respectively, p = 0.006, p = 0.038, and p = 0.026). PAOI was 63.3 ± 22.0 % in patients among whom massive PTE was detected and 43.1 ± 23.9 % in the group without massive PTE (p = 0.01). As for mortality; given an RV/LV ratio >1.0, this ratio had 100 % sensitivity and 35.6 % specificity, whereas given a PAOI of ≥50 %, sensitivity and specificity were 83.3 % and 57.8 %, respectively.ConclusionWe concluded that in the patients with PTE, PAOI ≥50 % and RV/LV >1.0 in CTPA could be helpful to demonstrate RVD.

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