Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Scintigraphic Evidence for Overdiagnosis of Small PE on CT Pulmonary Angiography

  • Interesting Image
  • Published:
Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

A 68-year-old man with recent history of a fall presented with dyspnea on exertion, and underwent computed tomography pulmonary angiography (CTPA) for possible pulmonary embolism (PE). The CTPA was first read by the radiology resident as nondiagnostic for segmental PE. Subsequent planar perfusion (Q) images were normal; meanwhile, the attending radiologist revised the CTPA results as subsegmental PE in the left upper lobe. Further Q-SPECT images were obtained and fused with CTPA for clarification, which showed normal perfusion in the region of PE. The patient was monitored without anticoagulation treatment and remained uneventful for 12 months. This case illustrates that CTPA can lead to overdiagnosis and overtreatment of nonocclusive subsegmental PE.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2

References

  1. Wiener RS, Schwartz LM, Woloshin S. Time trends in pulmonary embolism in the United States: evidence of overdiagnosis. Arch Intern Med. 2011;171:831–7.

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  2. Hutchinson BD, Navin P, Marom EM, Truong MT, Bruzzi JF. Overdiagnosis of pulmonary embolism by pulmonary CT angiography. AJR Am J Roentgenol. 2015;205:271–7.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Radiology, University of Illinois Hospital & Health Sciences System, 1740 W Taylor St. MC 931, Chicago, IL, 60612, USA

    Yang Lu

Authors
  1. Yang Lu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yang Lu.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of Interest

Yang Lu declares that he has no conflict of interests

Ethical Statement

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. No identifiable patient information was included in this case report. Informed consent was waived as per IRB policy on this retrospective case report. The manuscript has not been published before or is not under consideration for publication anywhere else and has been approved by all co-authors.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Lu, Y. Scintigraphic Evidence for Overdiagnosis of Small PE on CT Pulmonary Angiography. Nucl Med Mol Imaging 51, 97–98 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13139-015-0386-5

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13139-015-0386-5

Keywords

Search

Navigation