Correlation between clinical and pathological features of pulmonary thromboemboli and the development of infarcts

Factors that predispose pulmonary thromboembolism to infarction have not been completely understood. The present autopsy study was carried out to evaluate these factors both clinically and pathologically. Between 36 subjects with pulmonary infarction and 33 individuals who had multiple pulmonary thromboembolism but no infarction, clinical and pathological features including congestive heart failure (CHF), shock, sepsis, neoplasm, emphysema, pneumonia, the amount of pleural effusion, diameter of occluded arteries, and segmental and dimensional location of thromboemboli were compared. Multiple regression analysis revealed that clinically CHF was significantly associated with the development of infarction. In pathological factors, thromboemboli located in the distal artery and in the lower lobe were significantly associated with infarction. The size of the infarcts was small and all the complete infarcts were in contact with the pleura. In addition to CHF, occlusion of small arteries in the lower lobe and near the pleura seems to be associated with the occurrence of infarction.