Risk factors for pulmonary embolism
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Risk factors for pulmonary embolism
Symptoms of pulmonary embolism can be attributed to many other health conditions. If your doctor suspects that you may have had a pulmonary embolism, he or she will evaluate whether you have one or more risk factors for developing this condition. Risk factors include:
- A history of blood clots. If you or a member of your immediate family has had blood clots, you may be at a higher risk for developing clots that could break off and cause a pulmonary embolism.
- Other health conditions, such as heart failure, cancer, or severe infection.
- Recent trauma.
- Recent surgery.
- Placement of a catheter (a thin, flexible tube) in a large vein of your body.
- Serious burns.
- Use of hormone medications, especially birth control pills or other medications containing estrogen or containing other hormones that are like estrogen.
- Immobilization, such as during long car trips or airplane flights, or during an illness where you have been unable to move for a long period of time.
- Pregnancy.
Some studies suggest that smoking and being overweight also may increase a person's risk of developing pulmonary embolism.1
Even though a person's risk for developing pulmonary embolism may increase with the number of risk factors he or she has, the condition also occurs in people without any known risk factors.2
References
Citations
Hansson PO, et al. (1999). Smoking and abdominal obesity: Risk factors for venous thromboembolism among middle-aged men—"The study of men born in 1913." Archives of Internal Medicine, 159(16): 1886–1890.
Task Force on Pulmonary Embolism, European Society of Cardiology (2000). Task force report: Guidelines on diagnosis and management of acute pulmonary embolism. European Heart Journal, 21(16): 1301–1336.
Credits
| Author | Shannon Erstad, MBA/MPH |
| Editor | Kathleen M. Ariss, MS |
| Associate Editor | Pat Truman |
| Primary Medical Reviewer | Caroline S. Rhoads, MD - Internal Medicine |
| Specialist Medical Reviewer | Jeffrey S. Ginsberg, MD - Hematology |
| Last Updated | February 13, 2007 |
| Last updated: | February 13, 2007 |
|---|---|
| Author: | Shannon Erstad, MBA/MPH |
| Reviewed By: | Caroline S. Rhoads, MD - Internal Medicine, Jeffrey S. Ginsberg, MD - Hematology |
| Editors: | Kathleen M. Ariss, MS, Pat Truman |
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