Who is at most risk for a pulmonary embolism?
There are a lot of people that are at high risk for pulmonary embolism. If you sit on an airplane with the crowded seats that they have now with seatbelt across, you sit there for two or three hours and you develop poor circulation in your legs, the chances of clot forming in those veins because of the poor circulation goes up. If you lay in bed, patients who are chronically ill that will lay in bed for hour after hour, day after day and, then, suddenly get up, go to the bathroom, they could jar loose a clot that has formed in their legs and sudden experience shortness of breath or chest pain. Patients with congestive heart failure can develop pulmonary embolisms. Unfortunately, young healthy women that are on birth control pills have a higher incidence of pulmonary embolism. There are certain congenital, there are certain genetic deformities within the blood stream that will pre-dispose you to forming clots. You can also find pulmonary embolisms will develop in patients who have accoult or hidden cancers, especially in the abdomen. The first manifestation that you'll have, may have a hidden, small pancreatic cancer, for instance, would be a pulmonary embolism. So there's a lot of people that would come under the gun, if you will, as it relates to pulmonary embolisms.
