Pulmonary embolism thrombolysis: broadening the paradigm for its administration.
Pulmonary embolism thrombolysis: broadening the paradigm for its administration.
复制标题
肺栓塞溶栓:扩大其给药范式。
作者:
S. Goldhaber
Recommendations for appropriate administration of thrombolysis in PE have sparked debate and controversy for the past 30 years. Sometimes, those preparing journal symposia or national meetings have successfully enlivened their projects by inviting a “protagonist” and “antagonist” of thrombolysis for PE to pummel each other in public. Such exercises naturally tend to make the debaters focus solely on points that support their assigned positions. As a result, the audience must contend with two extreme views that rarely overlap. In contrast, consensus conferences have been convened to obtain expert opinions and then to issue guidelines on the optimal role of thrombolysis in PE management. Unfortunately, neither debates nor consensus conferences help to advance the field very much because the “take home message” is often swayed more by the articulateness and authority of a particular individual than by literature-based evidence. Ironically, the written or oral debate format and consensus guidelines are often relied on the most when data are sparse and the field of interest is murky.
Instead of becoming immolated by the heat of argument, one should pause when considering PE thrombolysis so that several fundamental points can be enumerated. First, PEs present with a wide spectrum of acuity and differ markedly in size and physiological effects. Therefore, optimal management strategies should rely on risk stratification rather than a “one size fits all” approach to treatment.1 Second, PE patients are often cursorily dichotomized as having either hemodynamic instability (with a systolic arterial pressure <90 mm Hg) or “normal hemodynamics.” However, cardiologists especially should further categorize patients as having normal systemic arterial pressure plus normal right ventricular function or normal systemic arterial pressure plus dysfunction of the right ventricle. The latter population, which was the focus of the study by Konstantinides and colleagues2 in this issue of Circulation , may …