Incidence of Acute Pulmonary Embolism in Covid-19 Patients on CT Angiography and Relationship to D-dimer Levels

Reports of acute pulmonary embolism (APE) associated with COVID-19 have emerged in the literature. For example, Chen et al. described 25 pulmonary CT angiograms examinations from 1008 COVID-19 patients; 10 were positive for pulmonary embolism mostly as segmental or sub-segmental APE. Case reports of APE in Covid-19 patients have been published. Cui et al. found an incidence of deep venous thrombosis in intensive care unit (ICU) patients with severe Covid-19 pneumonia near to 25% (20/81), however without any correlation with potential APE.

Despite these initial reports, it is not clear whether APE is more frequent in Covid-19 patients or if the association is just random. In favor of the former, D-dimer levels have been reported as elevated in patients with Covid-19 by two studies, and it has been suggested an independent association between the severity of the disease and the level of D-dimer. Finally, Tang et al. showed that anticoagulant therapy is associated with a decreased mortality at Day-28 in severe Covid-19 patients, in favor of a possible associated coagulopathy. The purpose of this study is to describe the rate of pulmonary embolus in patients classified as COVID-19 infection and who underwent chest CT angiography.

The purpose of this study is to describe the rate of pulmonary embolus in patients classified as COVID-19 infection and who underwent chest CT angiography.