ABSTRACT
I. Introduction Pulmonary embolism (PE) is responsible for approximately 20 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants per year in the United States (1-3). Untreated PE is associated with an overall mortality rate of approximately 30%—although more than half of this is due to underlying conditions like cancer and myocardial infarction (4,5)—which can be decreased between 2% and 8% with the institution of appropriate treatment (6-8).
