The Role of Spiral Computed Tomography in Acute Pulmonary Embolism

Abstract

This study was conducted at Modern Medical Centre and Khartoum Advanced Diagnostic Centre where there were enough cases to study and the availability of required machine and materials to perform proper investigation. The study aimed to determine the role of spiral CT Angiography in suspected cases of pulmonary Embolism The investigations were carried-out with the accurate procedure, as discussed in this research in detail, for different patients, males and females, children and elders, obese and thin. the resultant spiral CT images were very sharp. The lesion of interest was clearly shown whatever its size leaving no doubt for the radiologist to give differential diagnosis. 50 patients suspected to have pulmonary embolism of different ages and different sexes were investigated in this study. The study showed that 38 of them were affected by the disease and 12 were normal. Moreover the study revealed that the female patients were affected more than the males, and the (Rt) pulmonary artery was affected more than the (Lt) one. The researcher justified the reasons in his analysis and discussion. The research confirmed that the spiral CT sceneries a very sensitive modality for the detection of the pulmonary embolism and recommended that every patient suspected to have pulmonary embolism should undergo spiral CT scan directly. Also the researcher recommended that further studies should be done to compared this modality with other radiological modalities to show which is more accurate – easy and cheap for the patient.