Abstract
Pulmonary embolism (PE) is the primary cause of mortality and morbidity. The validated clinical models for the evaluation of PE are, the Wells score and D-dimer. If a patient’s Wells score and D-dimer values are high, further investigations such as imaging are conducted. One of the imaging modalities that patients undergo for further investigations is lung ventilation-perfusion (VQ) scintigraphy. However, it has been observed that some patients who are referred for VQ scintigraphy have negative results, despite high values of Wells score and D-dimer. This study aimed to investigate the correlation between the clinical indications for PE and VQ scintigraphy findings on patients suspected of having PE.
A retrospective quantitative, descriptive and correlational research design was applied. Systematic sampling was employed to sample 200 patients who had undergone VQ scintigraphy for the evaluation of PE at the Nuclear Medicine Department at an Academic Hospital in the Gauteng Province, South Africa.
Data analysis was conducted with the aid of descriptive and correlation statistics, using the SPSS version 27 software package. The results revealed that of the 200 patients sampled, there were more female patients 165 (82.5%) as compared to male patients 35 (17.5%). The age range of the patients was between 16-88 years. Further, the results revealed that 41 (20.5%) and 159 (79.5%) patients presented with negative and positive VQ scintigraphy findings respectively. In addition, for the Wells score results, 77 (38.5%) and 123 (61.5%) patients were PE likely and PE unlikely respectively. Finally, for the D-dimer results, 173 (86.5%) and 27 (13.5%) patients were positive and negative respectively.
In conclusion, this study revealed that there was a weak correlation between the Wells score and the VQ scintigraphy findings as well as the D-Dimer results. Further, the correlation between the Wells score, D-dimer and the VQ scintigraphy findings was also weak.