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Background: To determine the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, and diagnostic accuracy of thoracic ultrasound (TUS) in patients with moderate to high clinical suspicion of pulmonary embolism (PE). Twenty-five patients with moderate or high clinical suspicion of PE were enrolled in a prospective study. The patients' ages were 20 to 50 years (mean age = 36 years). They were evaluated by TUS and standard contrast-enhanced CT pulmonary angiography (CTPA). Results: In comparison to and in correlation with CTPA, TUS was found true positive in 12 patients (48%), false positive in one patient (4%), true negative in eight patients (32%), and false negative in four patients (8%), with an overall sensitivity (75%), specificity (89%), positive predictive value (92%), negative predictive value (67%), and accuracy (80%). Conclusion: TUS with its high specificity and diagnostic accuracy is a noninvasive, widely available, cost-effective method which can be rapidly performed. A negative TUS study cannot rule out PE with certainty, but positive TUS findings with moderate/high suspicion for PE may prove a valuable bedside tool in the diagnosis of PE especially for critically ill and immobile patients, facilitating their immediate treatment.

Patients and methodsThis study included 50 patients (42 women and eight men) with suspected PAH, their age ranging from 20 to 85 years (mean 44.62 years). Patients were referred to the radiology department of Cairo university hospital

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