Clinical study
The clinical features of submassive and massive pulmonary emboli

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Abstract

Clinical findings in 167 patients with angiographically established pulmonary emboli were analyzed in detail. The clinical symptoms and physical findings in this group were compared with the findings in 160 patients (diagnosis established by angiography) from an earlier similar study. The observations from this, the largest known group of patients with documented pulmonary emboli that has been studied and reported on, revealed that many of the “classic signs and symptoms” occurred infrequently. Most patients in this study had recognizable predisposing conditions, and some of these are of prognostic value. The data from this study demonstrate that no clinical findings are specific for the diagnosis of pulmonary emboli, but the absence of isolated frequently occurring signs and symptoms should mitigate against the presence of pulmonary emboli.

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    This study was supported in part by Grant HL-01601 and Contract PH 43-68-1398 from the National Heart and Lung Institute.

    1

    From the Department of Medicine, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland.

    2

    From the National Heart and Lung Institute of the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland.

    Present address: Division of Hematology, Department of Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195.

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