Chest Email Content Delivery
HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced]


     

Guest Access | Sign In via User Name/Password
This Article
Right arrow Full Text Free
Right arrow Full Text (PDF) Free
Right arrow Submit a response
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when eLetters are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in ISI Web of Science
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Article Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via ISI Web of Science (1)
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Meral, M.
Right arrow Articles by Gorguner, M.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Meral, M.
Right arrow Articles by Gorguner, M.
(Chest. 2005;128:2190-2194.)
© 2005 American College of Chest Physicians

Barometric Pressure and the Incidence of Pulmonary Embolism*

Mehmet Meral, MD; Arzu Mirici, MD; Sahin Aslan, MD; Metin Akgun, MD; Hasan Kaynar, MD; Leyla Saglam, MD and Metin Gorguner, MD

* From the Departments of Pulmonary Medicine (Drs. Meral, Mirici, Akgun, Kaynar, Saglam, and Gorguner) and Emergency Medicine (Dr. Aslan), Faculty of Medicine, Ataturk University, Erzurum, Turkey.

Correspondence to: Mehmet Meral, MD, Department of Pulmonary Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Ataturk University, Erzurum 25240 Turkey; e-mail: mmeral{at}atauni.edu.tr

Objectives: Reports in the literature suggest that weather changes may play a role in venous thrombotic disease. An increase in patients with pulmonary embolism (PE) during the spring season led us to investigate the relationship between atmospheric pressure (AP) and the incidence of PE, as diagnosed in most of the patients by helical CT angiography, and in the minority of patients by conventional pulmonary angiography and lung scanning.

Methods: We retrospectively investigated the charts of 91 consecutive patients with a diagnosis of PE who were evaluated by the Department of Pulmonary Medicine between August 2000 and September 2004. We documented AP changes as recorded by the Erzurum Provincial Department of Meteorology. Of the 91 patients, the diagnosis of PE was made by helical CT angiography in 84 patients, isotope lung scan in 5 patients, and conventional pulmonary angiography in 2 patients.

Results: More patients presented in the spring months (March, n = 15; April, n = 10; and May, n = 12) than during other seasons (p < 0.001). The frequency of PE was inversely related to general average AP (r = – 0.70; p < 0.01). When the average seasonal AP was correlated with the incidence of PE, however, the relationship was found to not be statistically significant (r = – 0.66; p = 0.34). There was no correlation between the severity of PE or mortality and AP.

Conclusions: The incidence of PE was significantly higher in the spring months, when AP was low. A regional study to capture all PE patients will need to be done to confirm our findings. Other meteorologic factors should be investigated regarding their effect on thromboembolic disease.

Key Words: atmospheric pressure • helical CT • predisposing factor • pulmonary embolism






HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
Copyright © 2005 by the American College of Chest Physicians.