Severity of acute pulmonary embolism: evaluation of a new spiral CT angiographic score in correlation with echocardiographic data

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the severity of acute pulmonary embolism (PE) could be quantitatively assessed with spiral CT angiography (SCTA). Thirty-six consecutive patients without underlying cardiopulmonary disease and high clinical suspicion of PE underwent prospectively thin-collimation SCTA and echocardiography at the time of the initial diagnosis (T0) and after initial therapy (T1; mean interval of time T1-T2: 32 days). The CT severity score was based on the percentage of obstructed surface of each central and peripheral pulmonary arterial section using a 5-point scale (1: <25%; 2: 25-49%; 3: 50-74%; 4: 75-99%; 5: 100%). The sum of the detailed scores attributed to 5 mediastinal, 6 lobar and 20 segmental arteries per patient led to the determination of central, peripheral and global CT severity scores and subsequent determination of percentages of obstruction of the pulmonary circulation. Echocardiographic severity criteria included the presence of signs of acute cor pulmonale and/or systolic pulmonary hypertension (>40 mm Hg). The SCTA depicted acute PE in all patients at T0 with complete resolution of endovascular clots in 10 patients at T1. At T0, the mean percentage of obstruction of the pulmonary arterial bed was significantly higher in the 22 patients with echocardiographic signs of severity (56+/-13 vs 28+/-32%; p<0.001). A significant reduction in the mean percentage of pulmonary artery obstruction was observed in the 19 patients with resolution of echocardiographic criteria of severity between TO and T1 T0: 57+/-14%; T1: 7+/-11%; p<0.001).The threshold value for severe PE on CT angiograms was 49% (sensitivity: 0.773; specificity: 0.214). The mean (+/-SD) pulmonary artery pressure was significantly higher in the 26 patients with more than 50% obstruction of the pulmonary artery bed (45+/-15 mm Hg) than in the 10 patients with less than 50% obstruction of pulmonary artery bed at TO (31+/-11 mm Hg; p<0.01). The CT severity score evaluated in the present study enables quantitative assessment of acute PE severity on spiral CT angiograms, readily applicable in routine clinical practice.