Pulmonary embolism is a blockage of an artery in the lungs by a blood clot, fat, air or clumped tumor cells.
By far the most common form of pulmonary embolism is a thromboembolism, which occurs when a blood clot, generally a venous thrombus, becomes dislodged from its site of formation and embolizes to the arterial blood supply of one of the lungs.
Symptoms may include difficulty breathing, pain during breathing, and more rarely circulatory instability and death.
Treatment is with anticoagulant medication, such as warfarin.
For more information about the topic Pulmonary embolism, read the full article at Wikipedia.org, or see the following related articles:
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Note: This page refers to an article that is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the article Pulmonary embolism at Wikipedia.org. See the Wikipedia copyright page for more details. Editor's Note: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.
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