Risk factors for pulmonary embolism
Symptoms of pulmonary embolism can be attributed to many other health conditions. If your doctor suspects that you may have had a pulmonary embolism, he or she will evaluate whether you have one or more risk factors for developing this condition. Risk factors include:
- A history of blood clots. If you or a member of your immediate family has had blood clots, you may be at a higher risk for developing clots that could break off and cause a pulmonary embolism.
- Other health conditions, such as heart failure, cancer, or severe infection.
- Recent trauma.
- Recent surgery.
- Placement of a catheter (a thin, flexible tube) in a large vein of your body.
- Serious burns.
- Use of hormone medications, especially birth control pills or other medications containing estrogen or containing other hormones that are like estrogen.
- Immobilization, such as during long car trips or airplane flights, or during an illness where you have been unable to move for a long period of time.
- Pregnancy.
Some studies suggest that smoking and being overweight also may increase a person's risk of developing pulmonary embolism.1
Even though a person's risk for developing pulmonary embolism may increase with the number of risk factors he or she has, the condition also occurs in people without any known risk factors.2
| Author: | Douglas Dana Shannon Erstad, MBA/MPH | Last Updated: March 23, 2007 |
| Medical Review: | Anne C. Poinier, MD - Internal Medicine Caroline S. Rhoads, MD - Internal Medicine Jeffrey S. Ginsberg, MD - Hematology | |
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