Study Finds Pulmonary CTA Effective Beyond Arteries in Pediatric Patients

A recent study found that CT angiography (CTA) can identify abnormalities and injury beyond the pulmonary arteries, including broken bones and heart disease, in pediatric patients. Increasingly, children with clinically suspected pulmonary embolism (PE) are being evaluated with CTA. Even though many children ultimately test negative for PE, study results suggest that CTA is still valuable for this indication because it has the ability to accurately detect a variety of alternative diagnoses. The study appears in the September issue of the American Journal of Roentgenology.
 
“One of the most important advantages of CTA is its ability to show alternative diagnoses in pediatric and adult patients without evidence of pulmonary embolism,” says Edward Lee, MD, MPH, lead author of the study.
 
The study, performed at Children’s Hospital Boston and Harvard Medical School, included 89 CTA exams with clinically suspected PE. Researchers found that 41% of those CTA exams were normal. However, they found that CTA provided them with an alternative diagnosis to pulmonary embolism in 59% of the exams performed.
 
“The two most common alternative diagnoses were pneumonia and atelectasis. However, a variety of other alternative diagnoses, including congenital heart disease, pulmonary hypertension, rib fractures, and more, were identified throughout the thorax ” Lee says.
 
“Our findings emphasize the importance of systemically searching beyond the pulmonary arteries for an alternative diagnosis when interpreting pulmonary CTA studies in children.”

— Source: American Roentgen Ray Society