Background: Pulmonary embolism (PE) is an acute, significant and life threatening condition. Transthoracic ultrasound (TUS) is one of the non-invasive diagnostic modalities that has been presented for detection of numerous chest disorders as well as PE. Objectives: the aim of this work was to assess the accuracy, sensitivity and specificity of bedside transthoracic ultrasonography for the diagnosis of pulmonary embolism. Patients and methods: 50 patients with moderate or high clinical suspicion of PE were examined by TUS. Diagnosis of PE depended on clinical suspicion and confirmed by computed tomography pulmonary angiography (CTPA). Results: most of lesions related to PE and detected by US examination were in the right side (60%) and posterior lower lobe (70%) with predominance of A profile. Sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, negative and positive predictive values of TUS in diagnosis of PE were 93.3%, 65%, 82%, 86.7 and 80% respectively. Conclusion: TUS is an important diagnostic tool as a non-invasive bed side test in diagnosis of PE principally for critically ill or immobile patients with high sensitivity and specificity. |
