Clinical Trial Summary
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.
