MRA for Primary Diagnosis of Pulmonary Embolism from the Emergency Department: Outcomes Analysis of 190 Symptomatic Patients at One Year

Mark L. Schiebler¹, Scott K. Nagle¹, Christopher J. Franois¹, Michael Repplinger², Azita Hamedani², Kang Wang³, Karl Vigen¹, Jean H. Brittain³, Thomas M. Grist¹, Scott B. Reeder¹

Pulmonary MRA (MRA-PE) can be used for the accurate diagnosis of pulmonary embolism (PE). We present our clinical experience of MRA-PE for the primary diagnosis of PE in 190 symptomatic patients referred from the emergency department. We employed a one-year follow up as the surrogate parameter for efficacy. In contrast to PIOPED III, 96.3% of our exams were of diagnostic quality; indicating excellent technical success. There were no subsequent PEs found in MRA-PE negative patients at their one year follow up. High quality single breath hold whole lung MRA for PE is an effective alternative to CTA.