Intended for healthcare professionals

Rapid response to:

Analysis Too Much Medicine

When a test is too good: how CT pulmonary angiograms find pulmonary emboli that do not need to be found

BMJ 2013; 347 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.f3368 (Published 02 July 2013) Cite this as: BMJ 2013;347:f3368

Rapid Response:

Re: When a test is too good: how CT pulmonary angiograms find pulmonary emboli that do not need to be found

While some small pulmonary emboli might not need treatment, the presence of emboli is not a physiological event and certainly should not be ignored. Presence of emboli is evidence of underlying pathology and should lead to screening for underlying malignancy and correction of provocative factors such as hormone replacement therapy.

Competing interests: No competing interests

24 July 2013
Santhanam Sundar
Consultant Oncologist
Nottingham University Hospital NHS Trust
Nottingham. NG5 1PB