Current Role of Multi-detector Computed Tomography (MDCT) in Diagnosis of Pulmonary Embolism

Pulmonary embolism (PE) is a common and serious condition, and if not diagnosed timely may lead to the death of the patient. Imaging plays a major role in the diagnosis of the PE. Since the past decade multi-detector computed tomographic pulmonary angiography is playing a major role in the diagnosis of PE due to its high accuracy. PE may be acute or chronic. PE may cause complete or partial obstruction of the pulmonary arteries. In acute PE, complete obstruction of the segmental and subsegmental branches of pulmonary artery causes enlargement of the vessel. Completely obstructed segmental and subsegmental vessels are smaller in size in the chronic PE. Chronic PE may also lead to the poststenotic dilatation of the obstructed vessel and development of the systemic collateral vessels. Multi-detector computed tomographic pulmonary angiography may be used to assess the clot resolution and severity of the PE.