Affiliations 

  • 1 Hospital Sultanah Nora Ismail
  • 2 Hospital Lahad Datu
MyJurnal

Abstract

Computed tomography pulmonary angiogram (CTPA) is widely used in the investigation of suspected pulmonary embolism. CTPA is not without adverse effects as it involves intravenous contrast injection and radiation exposure. The annual incidence of pulmonary embolism is 60 – 70 per 100,000 populations and CTPA remains the commonest imaging modality1. This study aims to audit all CTPA performed at Hospital Sultanah Nora Ismail, Batu Pahat, Johor for the entire year of 2018 to illustrate the demographic data, symptoms, risk factors, clinical scoring system applied and patients’ outcome. A retrospective study was conducted to audit all CTPA performed between 1st January to 31st December 2018 via the radiology department electronic records and patients’ records. There were a total of 60 CTPA performed in the entire year of 2018 with 16 positive and 44 negative scans. Among the 16 positive scans, 7 (44%) had a Wells score above 6, 6 (38%) had a Wells score between 2 – 6 and 3 (18%) had a Wells score less than 2. Out of the 16 positive scans, 4 (25%) were known malignancy and 1 was a known case of anti-phospholipid syndrome. All 60 patients had electrographs and arterial blood gases performed prior to CTPA. D dimer was performed in 15 cases (5%). Among the 16 positive scan patients, 4 (25%) passed away during the same admission directly or indirectly related to pulmonary embolism. This annual computed tomography audit report will assist clinicians in making better diagnostic decision when dealing with patients with suspected pulmonary embolism.