assessment of pulmonary thromboembolism in exacerbated copd

to inactivity, heart failure and advanced age (Stebbings and Lim, 1998 Patients with COPD are considered to be at an increased risk for developing pulmonary embolism (PE) possibly in relation).Acute exacerbation of COPD is associated with dyspnea and, consequently, reduced mobility. Immobility is a recognized risk factor of DVT, but few data exist regarding the prevalence of DVT in patients with AECOPD (Schonhofer and Kohler, 1998).The diagnosis of pulmonary embolism in patients with COPD may be extremely difficult and some authors have even referred to this point as a “diagnostic dilemma” (Lesser et al., 1992).Pulmonary embolism has an important diagnostic problem with COPD. Indeed, PE may aggravate the already precarious respiratory state of these fragile patients. Moreover, these two conditions share common symptoms: dyspnea, wheezing, pleural pain, hemoptysis, palpitation and signs of right cardiac insufficiency (Mispelaere et al., 2002).This work was carried out to assess pulmonary thromboembolism in exacerbated COPD patients.The present study included 50 patients with AECOPD who were admitted at Chest Department and RICU, Zagazig University Hospitals. They were 40 males and 10 females with age range from 35 to 75 years with a mean of 58.22 ± 10.54 years.