The value of ventilation/perfusion scanning and CT pulmonary angiography in predicting chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension after acute pulmonary embolism: a one-year follow-up study

To investigate the value of ventilation/perfusion (V/Q) scanning and CT pulmonary angiography (PA) in predicting CTEPH development after acute pulmonary embolism (APE). This study was performed in APE patients who had undergone both V/Q and CT PA after 3-month anticoagulation. The residual pulmonary obstructions were assessed based on V/Q and CT PA, and then recorded as pulmonary perfusion detect score (PPDs) and CT pulmonary artery obstruction index (PAOI). The predictive performance of PPDs and CT PAOI for CTEPH were determined and risk factors for predicting CTEPH development were identified. A total of 235 patients with initial diagnosis of APE were included in this study. ROC analysis showed that the AUCs of the PPDs and CT PAOI were 0.957 and 0.895, with corresponding cut-off values of 20.50% and 17.50% for predicting CTEPH development. Neither sensitivity nor specificity differed significantly between PPDs and CT PAOI (Sensitivity: 92.00% vs. 80.00%, P = 0.25; Specificity: 88.10% vs. 89.52%, P = 0.69). The univariable and multivariable logistic regression analysis demonstrated that pulmonary arterial hypertension confirmed by echocardiography at initial APE diagnosis (OR: 6.16, 95%CI: 1.31–29.02, P = 0.02), a PPDs of > 20.50% (OR: 22.95, 95%CI: 2.37–222.19, P = 0.007), and a CT PAOI of > 17.50% (OR: 9.98, 95%CI: 2.06–48.49, P = 0.004) were associated with CTEPH development. Both V/Q and CT PA after 3-month anticoagulation for APE showed great performance in predicting CTEPH development, and V/Q scanning has a tendency to be more sensitive but less specific than CT PA. The residual pulmonary embolism detected by V/Q and CT PA was associated with an increased risk of CTEPH development.