Clinical imaging
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Acute massive pulmonary embolism causes abrupt pulmonary arterial hypertension and right ventricular dysfunction (RVD). Patients with RVD have a worse prognosis than those with normal right ventricular function. Consequently, recognizing the RVD at the time of pulmonary embolism is useful for risk stratification and enables more aggressive therapy. The study compared the accuracy of helical computed tomographic (CT) scans with echocardiography in the detecting of RVD in patients with acute massive pulmonary embolism. ⋯ CT can accurately detect RVD in patients with acute massive pulmonary embolism. However, this result requires confirmation using a larger prospective cohort study.