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Right Heart Failure from Pulmonary Embolism

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Clinical Cases in Right Heart Failure

Part of the book series: Clinical Cases in Cardiology ((CCC))

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Abstract

Acute right heart failure (RHF) is an important presentation of acute pulmonary artery thromboembolism (PE). The hemodynamic nature of acute right ventricular failure is fundamentally different from that of chronic right ventricular failure. Recognizing important clinical signs, along with imaging modalities such as Transthoracic echocardiogram, lung ventilation/perfusion scintigraphy scan and computed tomographic pulmonary angiography (CTPA), can help to make an early diagnosis. Early treatment with anticoagulants and/or thrombolysis, helps to improve in-hospital survival and reduce long-term pulmonary arterial hypertension. Systemic or catheter directed thrombolysis plays a vital role in patients with hemodynamic instability. The role of advanced hemodynamic support devices as an adjuvant therapy is limited to only specialized centers with experienced operators.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Steward St Elizabeth’s Medical Center, Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USA

    Peeyush Grover, Alireza Vaziri & Lawrence A. Garcia

Authors
  1. Peeyush Grover
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  2. Alireza Vaziri
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  3. Lawrence A. Garcia
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lawrence A. Garcia .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center, Boston, MA, USA

    Lana Tsao

  2. Maine Medical Center, Portland, ME, USA

    Maxwell E. Afari

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Grover, P., Vaziri, A., Garcia, L.A. (2020). Right Heart Failure from Pulmonary Embolism. In: Tsao, L., Afari, M. (eds) Clinical Cases in Right Heart Failure. Clinical Cases in Cardiology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-38662-7_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-38662-7_6

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-38661-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-38662-7

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