Usefulness of an imaging tool on CT pulmonary angiography in the prognostic stratification of patients with acute pulmonary embolism

Pulmonary Embolism (PE) is a syndrome with a broad spectrum of clinical manifestations. The main criterion of prognostic stratification is the degree of hemodynamic instability on the basis of which we distinguish “high risk” PE manifesting with cardiac arrest, shock or severe hypotension (mortality 30–70%) and “not-high risk” PE (mortality up to 1%) [1]. The severity of PE depends on the interaction among thrombotic load, increase in the right ventricular afterload, and the right ventricle's ability to adapt to this load [2].