Canadian Society of Thoracic Radiology/Canadian Association of Radiologists Best Practice Guidance for Investigation of Acute Pulmonary Embolism, Part 2: Technical Issues and Interpretation Pitfalls

Abstract

The investigation of acute pulmonary embolism is a common task for radiologists in Canada. Technical image quality and reporting quality must be excellent; pulmonary embolism is a life-threatening disease that should not be missed but overdiagnosis and unnecessary treatment should be avoided. The most frequently performed imaging investigation, computed tomography pulmonary angiogram (CTPA), can be limited by poor pulmonary arterial opacification, technical artifacts and interpretative errors. Image quality can be affected by patient factors (such as body habitus, motion artifact and cardiac output), intravenous (IV) contrast protocols (including the timing, rate and volume of IV contrast administration) and common physics artifacts (including beam hardening). Mimics of acute pulmonary embolism can be seen in normal anatomic structures, disease in non-vascular structures and pulmonary artery filling defects not related to acute pulmonary emboli. Understanding these pitfalls can help mitigate error, improve diagnostic quality and optimize patient outcomes. Dual energy computed tomography holds promise to improve imaging diagnosis, particularly in clinical scenarios where routine CTPA may be problematic, including patients with impaired renal function and patients with altered cardiac anatomy.

Keywords: acute pulmonary embolism; computed tomography; dual-energy CT; intravenous contrast; quality improvement.