Objective: To investigate the effect of early diagnosis and thrombolytic followed by anticoagulant therapy in pulmonary embolism (PE).
Methods: 46 patients diagnosed as PE were retrospectively analyzed. All the patients were treated with thrombolytic followed by anticoagulant therapy. Therapeutic effect was compared between two groups of patients with symptoms more or less than two weeks before establishment of diagnosis.
Result: 36 patients were documented as PE by lung scan, 13 of 46 patients (28.3%) were misdiagnosed as other heart or lung diseases. All the patients had accompanying diseases, including leg deep vein thrombosis (DVT) (33/46, 71.7%) heart or lung diseases other than PE(23/46, 50%), and history of surgery (6/46, 3%). 93.1% of the patients with clinical history less than 2 weeks showed improvement, whereas only 52.9% of those with clinical history exceeding 2 weeks improved. There was significant difference between them.
Conclusion: In order to diagnose PE early, we should pay more attention to the risk factors of PE, especially DVT. The success of thrombolysis appears to depend on the interval between the onset of symptoms and start of thrombolytic therapy. Patients with clinical symptoms less than 2 weeks show better improvement.