Detection of incidental pulmonary embolism with multi-slice computed tomography in cancer patients

Abstract

The aim of this study is to show the frequency of incidentally found (pulmonary thromboembolism) PTE in oncological patients and evaluate dispersion of incidents in terms of underlying primary tumor and seek risk factors associated with incidental PTE. Among one thousand oncology patients, 46 (4.6%) individuals found to have incidental PTE. Of positive patients, the highest proportion (24%) was belong to breast cancer group (n=11). The most common location for pulmonary emboli was the lower lobe branch of right pulmonary artery (n=33, 71.7%). Evident PTE had not been reported in final radiology reports of 21 cases.

Keywords: Cancer; Computed tomography; Incidentally pulmonary thromboembolism (PTE); Multislice computed tomography (MSCT).