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Letter
Pulmonary embolism imaging: when is it too much?
  1. Prashant Nagpal,
  2. Ali Eskandari,
  3. Sarv Priya
  1. Radiology, University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, Iowa City, Iowa, USA
  1. Correspondence to Dr Prashant Nagpal, Radiology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA; drprashantnagpal{at}gmail.com

http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/postgradmedj-2019-136452

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    We would like to commend Dhakal et al 1 for their research. This work highlights persistent and increasing overuse of imaging for ruling out pulmonary embolism (PE). Since the introduction of CT use for PE rule-out in the late 1990s, studies between 2000 and 2010 showed that use of CT for PE rule-out increased by greater than 10–15 times over the decade.2 3 Prior studies on evaluation of positivity of PE rule-out imaging have shown relatively high positivity ranging between 6% and 25%.4 5 Generally, positivity of less …

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    Footnotes

    • Contributors PN, AE and SP have provided substantial contribution to the conception and design of the work. PN drafted and submitted the work. AE and SP have revised it critically for important intellectual content. PN is the guarantor of this work.

    • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Patient consent Not required.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; internally peer reviewed.