Rising incidence of pulmonary embolism in modern China

To the Editor:Pulmonary embolism (PE) used tobe thought to be rare in China.Traditionalteaching by such authorities as Snapper,who washighly regarded in old China as one of the mostastute diagnosticians,was that PE was uncommonin China.As a matter of fact,he did not evenmention it in his book“Chinese lessons to westernmedicine”,published in 1941.The rarity ofpulmonary embolism was even more remarkablewhen one considered the widespread use of birthcontrol pills among the Chinese women ofchild-bearing age.