Author: Dr Taylor Thomson Harvard Medical School 2008-07-22
What is a pulmonary embolism?
Pulmonary
Embolism (PULL-mun-ary; EM-bo-lizm) is a condition caused by a blood
clot that has suddenly blocked one or more of the arteries of the lung. Health care professionals often refer to pulmonary embolism by its initials, PE. It is a serious medical condition that afflicts over 100,000 people in the United States each year. Almost a third of patients with pulmonary embolism die, usually within two hours of the blood clots arrival in the lung. If
the condition is diagnosed and anticoagulant therapy (also known as
“blood thinner”) is given promptly, the prognosis dramatically improves. Mortality from properly treated PE is around 3%.