Advances in Multidetector CT Diagnosis of Pediatric Pulmonary Thromboembolism

Pediatric pulmonary thromboembolism has historically been considered as rare with relatively little information present in the medical literature regarding its imaging evaluation. Buck et al. (1) have performed a retrospective review of 3600 pediatric autopsy patients and reported that the incidence of pulmonary thromboembolism is 3.7%. Additionally, they have found that massive pulmonary thromboembolism has contributed to death in 31% of cases. With increased use of advanced crosssection imaging, particularly computed tomography pulmonary angiography (CTPA), the prevalence of Advances in Multidetector CT Diagnosis of Pediatric Pulmonary Thromboembolism Paul G. Thacker, MD, Edward Y. Lee, MD, MPH Department of Radiology and Radiological Science, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC 29425, USA; Division of Thoracic Imaging, Department of Radiology and Medicine, Pulmonary Division Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA