This report presents data on the late dead space fraction (fDlate) of a patient submitted to surgical pulmonary embolectomy. Pulmonary thromboembolism (PTE) was diagnosed by echo-Doppler ultrasound of the lower limbs, lung scintigraphy, computerized helical tomography and angiography. The fDlate was calculated based on volumetric capnography as well as on arterial blood gases according to ERIKSSON et al. [1]. The preoperative fDlate value was 0.16, which was considered positive for the diagnosis of PTE, as it was higher than the cut-off point of 0.12. The postoperative fDlate value was - 0.04, which was below 0.12 and was characterized as negative. The agreement of fDlate with the imaging results confirms the validity of this new, noninvasive diagnostic tool.
Pulmonary embolism; Pulmonary gas exchange; Capnography
