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Autopsy-Proven Pulmonary Embolism: A Major Cause of Death in Hospitalized Patients


Ludovit Gaspar, MD, PhD1, Svetoslav Stvrtina, MD, PhD2, Ivan Ocadlik, MD1, Michal Makovnik, MD1, Matej Bendzala, MD1, Viera Stvrtinova, MD, PhD1, Tatiana Piskova, MD1, Martin Lukac, MD3, and Andrej Dukat, MD, PhD, FESC1

The morbidity and mortality associated with deep venous thrombosis and pulmonary embolism (PE) have a significant impact on public health, with PE ranking among the most frequent undiagnosed acute diseases in medical practice. During a 23-year study period in our internal medicine department,PE was diagnosed in 118 of 963 autopsied patients (12%). Accordance between clinical diagnosis of PE and autopsy findings was confirmed in 54 patients, while 64 patients had autopsy-confirmed PE that had not been diagnosed clinically. The most frequent predisposing factor was immobilization and the most common source of PE was thrombosis of the femoral vein. In one-third of cases, autopsy could not establish the source of the PE. Despite increased knowledge regarding the pathophysiology of PE, new diagnostic methods, and new therapeutic approaches, the rate of PE-related mortality did not decrease during the observation period.Adv Orthop 2010;2(1):8–14.

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