title: Equipment availability and diagnostic strategies for suspected pulmonary embolism in Austria.
abstract: The aim of this study was to investigate equipment availability and current diagnostic strategies for suspected pulmonary embolism (PE) in Austrian hospitals. A questionnaire was sent to the medical directors of all Austrian hospitals with emergency and/or surgical, orthopedic, and medical departments. The questionnaire contained questions regarding the available equipment suitable for the imaging diagnosis of PE, the first-line and second-line imaging tests for patients with suspected PE, and additional lower extremity venous imaging and laboratory tests that complement the diagnostic armamentarium. The return rate for questionnaires was 81% (127 of 157 hospitals). There were 97% of hospitals that had the equipment to perform sonography, 59% could perform pulmonary angiography, 54% spiral CT, 19% ventilation/perfusion (V/P) scintigraphy, and 4% perfusion scintigraphy alone. Spiral-CT angiography (SCTA) was the first-line imaging study for suspected PE in 56% of hospitals, followed by echocardiography and V/P scintigraphy. Lower extremity venous imaging (47%) and, interestingly, V/P scintigraphy (43%), served as second-line imaging tests. D-dimer tests were included in the diagnostic strategy in 74% of hospitals. Spiral-CT angiography is the most commonly used primary method for suspected PE in Austrian hospitals. The V/P scintigraphy is available only in a minority of hospitals to investigate patients with suspected PE. When V/P scintigraphy is available, however, it is employed in a large number of patients per annum.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, University of Vienna, Währinger Gürtel 18-20, 1090 Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Schibany
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Fleischmann
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Thallinger
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Schibany
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hahne
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ba-Ssalamah
authors.forename: C J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Herold
mesh_terms: D001317:Austria; D019719:Diagnostic Equipment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D011655:Pulmonary Embolism / Q000175:diagnosis*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires