Microscopic Examination of Clots from Percutaneous Mechanical Embolectomies in Pulmonary Embolism

Pulmonary embolism (PE) is a very common clinical entity with clinical symptoms that range from no symptom to complete hemodynamic collapse, sometimes with similar-appearing clot burden on computed tomographic pulmonary angiogram. Given highly variable clinical presentation, the authors wanted to investigate if there is clinical correlation based on the age of a clot with microscopic examination to clinical presentation. Thirteen thrombectomy aspirates from patients with an acute PE were microscopically analyzed. The goal was to age the thrombus based on histologic features and correlate it to clinical course.