Abstract
Chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH) is considered a long-term complication
of acute pulmonary embolism (PE). Diagnosing CTEPH is challenging, as demonstrated
by a considerable diagnostic delay exceeding 1 year, which has a negative impact on
the patient's prognosis. Dedicated screening CTEPH strategies in PE survivors could
potentially help diagnosing CTEPH earlier, although the optimal strategy is unknown.
Recently published updated principles for screening in medicine outline the conditions
that must be considered before implementation of a population-based screening program.
Following these extensive principles, we discuss the pros and cons of CTEPH screening,
touching on the epidemiology of CTEPH, the prognosis of CTEPH in the perspective of
emerging treatment possibilities, and potentially useful tests and test combinations
for screening. This review provides a modern perspective on CTEPH screening including
a novel approach using a simple noninvasive algorithm of sequential diagnostic tests
applied to all PE survivors.
Keywords
pulmonary embolism - pulmonary hypertension - diagnostic screening programs - earlier
diagnosis - prognosis
