Pulmonary embolism: segmental appearance of perfusion lung scan defects correlates with successful response to thrombolytic therapy.

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Abstract
Lung scan data from a series of 45 patients receiving thrombolytic therapy were reviewed to determine if any patttern on the pretherapy perfusion lung scans could be identified that predicted response to therapy. A segmental appearance on the pretherapy scans (complete or nearly complete absence of perfusion in a while segment or a very large subsegment), was correlated with the amount of improvement in perfusion on lung scans obtained 24 hours after the start of thrombolytic therapy. As a group, patients with a segmental appearance on the pretherapy lung scans had more improvement in the perfusion reduction score than patients with a nonsegmental appearance (P < .005). However, the correlation between segmental appearance and a favorable response to thrombolytic therapy was not strong enough to allow use of this appearance in the selection of patients for therapy.