Lisette van Dam

Chapter 11 172 Figure 1 . Colour-coded parametric CT pulmonary perfusion images fused with CT pulmonary angiography images, axial (A) and coronal (B) views of a 68-year-old female patient with an acute pulmonary embolism in the left and right pulmonary arteries (encircled). Several wedge-like dark-coloured areas in both lungs represent hypoperfusion RESULTS Of the 100 patients, 7 patients were transferred to another hospital because of logistical reasons. These patients were therefore not taken into account in the following analyses. The mean age of the 93 study patients was 62 years (SD 17), 50 patients (54%) were male, 17 patients (18%) had one or more previous episode(s) of VTE, 25 patients (27%) had an active malignancy and 3 patients (3.2%) had an active infection (urinary tract infection, abdominal infection after complicated pancreaticoduodenectomy and post lumbar laminectomy wound infection) at time of inclusion, 21 patients (23%) had been immobilized for > 3 days or had travelled for more than 6 hours by plane or car, and 19 patients (20%) presented with a trauma or surgery in the four weeks before presentation. Mean PDS of the study population was 27% (SD 12). The interobserver agreement of PDS assessment was good with a mean difference in PDS of 4.4% (SD 7.0) between reviewers. The prevalence of persistent symptoms and adverse outcomes at 3-month follow- up with associated mean PDS are presented in Table 1 . At 3-months, persistent dyspnea was present in 22 patients (24%), chest pain in 11 (12%) and post- PE functional impairment in 22 patients (24%). None of the patients had been diagnosed with CTEPH at 3-month follow-up. During 3-months of follow-up, 9 patients (9.7%) were readmitted to hospital, of whom 4 patients were readmitted due to pain or dyspnea related to the PE and 5 patients because of major bleeding. Six patients (6.5%) were investigated for suspected recurrent VTE: one patient