Pulmonary Embolism as Cause of Cardiac Arrest

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Abstract
PULMONARY embolism (PE) is a possible noncardiac cause of cardiac arrest and has an extremely unfavorable prognosis. In fulminant PE, up to 90% of cardiac arrests occur within 1 to 2 hours after the onset of symptoms.1 Therefore, most of these patients will require cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) well before any attempt to diagnose the cause of cardiac arrest has been made, and in many cases the diagnosis will be established only by autopsy after unsuccessful CPR.2-5