Search

Pulmonary embolism takes place as a consequence of the migration of a thrombus towards the pulmonary vascular tree. Patients frequently report chest pain that can mimic an acute coronary syndrome. We present the case of a 57-year-old patient who came to the emergency department with acute chest pain and dyspnea. He was diagnosed as a non-ST segment elevation acute coronary syndrome, due to the electrocardiographic changes that he presented at admission, but the echocardiographic findings showed increased pulmonary pressures, and the invasive coronary angiography, normal coronary arteries; therefore, a pulmonary angiography with multislice tomography was performed, which confirmed the diagnosis of bilateral pulmonary embolism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Technological advances in computed tomography have made it possible to assess small, mobile structures such as the coronary arteries and the rest of the heart. Cardiac tomography provides anatomical and functional information. Objectives: To identify the values of the main anatomical sizes of the cardiac chambers and great vessels, and compare them with the reference values. Methods: An analytical research and development study was conducted with a population of 325 normotensive, non-obese patients without cardiopulmonary or great vessel structural disease, arrhythmia or significant coronary artery disease. One hundred patients were selected by simple random probability sampling, who underwent dual-source cardiac computed tomography at the Cardiocentro Ernesto Che Guevara, Santa Clara, Cuba. Results: Left and right ventricular measurements showed differences when compared with most reference values. Aortic diameters increased with age. They were higher in men and were different from the reference values except for the short axis diameter of the aortic root in end-diastole and short-axis diameter of the descending aorta in end-systole. The pulmonary artery showed significant differences in relation to the reference values. Conclusions: Measurements of cardiac chambers and great vessels by tomographic techniques are necessary in certain population groups to achieve adequate standardization due to their great variability in relation to different variables. The significant difference with the reference values indicates the need for multicenter studies with larger populations to achieve homogeneity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]