Most patients with DVT or PE recover completely within several weeks to months without significant complications or long-term adverse effects. However, long-term problems can occur, with symptoms ranging from very mild to more severe.
Symptoms from a pulmonary embolism, like shortness of breath or mild pain or pressure in your chest, can linger 6 weeks or more.
It can take months or years for a pulmonary embolism to go away completely. Repeated PE or a very large PE can lead to pulmonary hypertension in some people.
It's possible that some of your symptoms will ease as you receive treatment and your body heals. However, it's not uncommon to continue to have shortness of breath or chest pain for weeks, months, or even years after a PE. A 2019 study looked at quality of life in 101 people who'd had a PE.
Half the people who have pulmonary embolism have no symptoms. If you do have symptoms, they can include shortness of breath, chest pain or coughing up blood. Symptoms of a blood clot include warmth, swelling, pain, tenderness and redness of the leg.
Chest pain.
You may feel like you're having a heart attack. The pain is often sharp and felt when you breathe in deeply. The pain can stop you from being able to take a deep breath. You also may feel it when you cough, bend or lean over.
Main symptoms of a pulmonary embolism include chest pain that may be any of the following: Under the breastbone or on one side. Sharp or stabbing. Burning, aching, or a dull, heavy sensation.
Pulmonary embolism chest pain
You may experience pain that especially gets worse when you breathe, cough, or move. Pain does not decrease with rest and only worsens with activity. There is no stretching or massaging the pain away.
Pulmonary embolism has similar symptoms to conditions like heart attack, aortic dissection, and pneumonia. Symptoms may vary greatly depending on a range of factors, including the size of the clot and the patient's overall health.
Your doctor will order a D-dimer blood test to help diagnose or rule out the presence of a pulmonary embolism. The D-dimer test measures the levels of a substance that is produced in your bloodstream when a blood clot breaks down.
It takes about 3 to 6 months for a blood clot to go away. During this time, there are things you can do to relieve symptoms. Elevate your leg to reduce swelling. Talk to your doctor about using compression stockings.
The pooled results across the studies suggest that in ED settings 27.5% of patients with PE are misdiagnosed initially and half of all patients in inpatient settings are misdiagnosed (53.6%). Among patients that die in intensive care who undergo autopsy 37.9% were found to have PE that was missed.
In most cases, the hope is your body will eventually dissolve the clot on its own. If it doesn't, more drastic measures may need to be taken. Clot dissolvers called thrombolytics are a medication reserved for life-threatening situations because they can cause sudden and severe bleeding.
Thus, while a normal oxygen saturation or A-a gradient is reassuring, it does not rule out acute PE. Electrocardiography may be normal in patients with acute PE, although it may reveal sinus tachycardia or an atrial arrhythmia.
A larger blood clot will take longer to dissolve, but these are also the types of clots that might require fibrinolytics (which break down the clot right away). Most people will need to take blood thinners for at least 3 months.
A condition known as chronic pulmonary embolism – leading to high blood pressure in the lungs with long-term breathing issues and exercise intolerance.
Sudden shortness of breath is the most common symptom of a PE. PE is often difficult to diagnose because the signs and symptoms of PE are a lot like those of many other conditions and diseases.
The most common presenting symptom is dyspnea followed by chest pain (classically pleuritic but often dull) and cough. However, many patients, including those with large PE, have mild or nonspecific symptoms or are asymptomatic.
Dyspnea, chest pain, and cough are the most frequent symptoms of PE, while fever, tachycardia, abnormal pulmonary signs, and peripheral vascular collapse are the most common physical findings.
These symptoms of a blood clot may feel similar to a pulled muscle or a “Charley horse,” but may differ in that the leg (or arm) may be swollen, slightly discolored, and warm. Contact your doctor as soon as you can if you have any of these symptoms, because you may need treatment right away.
This included a lack of risk factors for PE as well as the nature and onset of the pain, which was preceded by a recent productive cough and described as tightness worse when lying flat and better when sitting up and leaning forwards.
Back pain is common with blood clots in the lung, such as a pulmonary embolism. The pain will often get worse with extensive coughing and when taking deep breaths. The back pain from these types of embolisms can extend to the upper, middle, and lower parts of your back and both sides.
Most people can walk and do light housework right away after a pulmonary embolism, but you may get tired easily or feel short of breath. Your doctor probably will give you specific exercises to do for several weeks or months to help boost your strength and breathing.
Chest X-Ray
Blood clots do not show up on an X-ray, but it can see other things such as fluid or pneumonia on the lungs that can explain your symptoms. A normal chest X-ray with unexplained low blood oxygen level, increases the suspicion that you have a pulmonary embolism.