Fatal pulmonary embolism in the elderly with malignant tumor: a clinical pathological analysis of 19 autopsy cases / 中华老年医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the high risk factors,pathology and clinical features in fatal pulmonary embolism in the elderly patients with malignant tumor,and to analyze the characters of the embolus and provide experimental data for clinical prevention and treatment offatal pulmonary embolism.Methods Autopsy and clinical data of 19 malignancy cases with fatal pulmonary embolism admitted to Beijing Hospital from 1975 to 2006 were retrospectively analyzed.Results 33.9％ of total pulmonary embolism were from malignant diseases (19/56).Saddle and massive pulmonary embolism were in 84.2％ of total 19 cases,and micro-embolism cases were in only 15.8％.The 84.2％ of embolisms were from pulmonary thromboembolism,15.8％ from tumor emboli,and 5.26％ from fungi emboli.Pulmonary adenocarcinoma was the most common (36.5％),the second was pancreatic cancer (15.8％).In all the clinical symptoms,78.9％ of symptoms were dyspnea,15.8％ were syncope.Tachycardia and cyanosis were the common physical signs.Conclusions Malignant tumor is an important risk factor for pulmonary embolism in elderly patients.There are various kinds of emboli in pulmonary embolism in elderly patients with malignant tumor.We should comprehensively consider the causes of pulmonary embolism and give the reasonable and effective treatment to the patients.