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Scintigraphic Evidence for Overdiagnosis of Small PE on CT Pulmonary Angiography

Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging volume 51, pages 97–98 (2017)Cite this article

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.

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Affiliations

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

    Yang Lu

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  1. Yang Lu
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Correspondence to Yang Lu.

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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.

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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

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

Keywords

  • Pulmonary embolism
  • Computed tomography pulmonary angiography
  • V/Q scan
  • Perfusion SPECT/CT
  • Overdiagnosis