[Clinical-pathological study on 10 cases of pulmonary thromboembolism].

OBJECTIVE

To improve the diagnosis of pulmonary thromboembolism (PTE) by a clinical-pathological analysis of 10 cases of PTE.

METHODS

Eight cases of massive and submassive (in the segmental and larger pulmonary arteries) PTE confirmed by autopsy and 2 cases of PTE who underwent surgical treatment in the past 10 years (1991 - 2001) were studied. The specimens were fixed in 10% buffered formalin, and paraffin sections cut, and stained with HE and ET + VG. The pathological features were analyzed.

RESULTS

There were 8 males and 2 females, aged 3.5 to 72 years (mean 33.3). The underlining diseases included congenital heart diseases (3 cases of ventricular septal defect complicated with pulmonary hypertension, and 1 case of tetralogy of Fallot), malignant lymphoma in the heart (n = 1), rheumatic heart disease (n = 1), lung metastatic cancer from stomach (n = 1), and phlebitis of the legs (n = 1). The sources of PE remained unknown in 2 cases. Among these cases, only 2 were diagnosed clinically.

CONCLUSIONS

The research showed that PTE in patients who had underlining cardiovascular diseases, malignant tumors in the heart or lungs and pneumonia (pulmonary abscess) were hard to diagnose clinically. Pathological study is helpful in improving the clinical diagnosis of PTE.