New developments in the diagnosis and therapy of acute pulmonary embolism

Despite the widespread use of thromboprophylaxis, pulmonary embolism (PE) remains one of the most common life-threatening disorder. In fact, the prevalence of detected postmortem PE has not diminished during the last 3 decades. The review summarizes the most important data on the prevalence of acute pulmonary embolism and the difficulties of diagnosis and differential diagnosis. Anticoagulant-, thrombolytic- and surgical therapy of pulmonary embolism is detailed.