[Management of pulmonary embolism in a cardiology department]

The objective of our work is to study the clinical features and the management of pulmonary embolism in a cardiology department.

It is a retrospective study including 43 patients between 1993 and 2003 in the cardiology department of a Tunisian hospital for acute pulmonary embolism.

The most common clinical signs were dyspnea, pleural pain and deep venous thrombosis. The most common physical signs were tachypnea and tachycardia. Electrocardiographic abnormalities were found in 38 patients (88.4%). Chest X-ray was abnormal in 25 patients (60.5%). The arterial blood gas found hypoxia and\or hypocapnia in 95% of cases. D-dimer was high in almost totality of patients (96%). US doppler of deep leg veins was positive in more than 40% of patients. Transthoracic echocardiography was normal in more than 40% of the patients. Lung scan noted a high or very high probability in 87% of cases. Pulmonary helical CT was positive in majority of cases. Unfractionated heparin was administered to about 75% of patients and low-molecular-weight-heparin was prescribed at only 40% of patients.

Management of pulmonary embolism in our cardiology department is characterized by the frequent use of non invasive techniques on the diagnostic view and appeal to heparine on the therapeutic view.