[Role of catheterization and pneumoangiography in moderately severe pulmonary embolism]

In patients with moderate pulmonary embolic disease, angiography is regarded as the most reliable procedure for establishing the diagnosis. Digital subtraction angiography (DSA) is easier to perform than conventional pneumoangiography (presently carried out in some selected cases only) and has become the diagnostic procedure of choice for pulmonary embolism. DSA achieves satisfactory results and is still more accurate when it is performed after perfusion/ventilation lung scans. In patients with acute embolus, usually hospitalized in the intensive care unit. Swan-Ganz catheterization provides the clinician with a great degree of haematologic information that enables him to select the appropriate therapeutic choice, which most often has to be determined in emergency.