Character continued:

• The PIOPED trial showed that 66% of patients with PE had pleuritic pain, and 72% had dyspnea.
• More importantly however, 28% of patients had NO SYMPTOMS. So PE can be a silent killer.
• Because smaller emboli tend to travel distally and lodge closer to the pleura, they are more likely to produce localized pleuritic pain than larger emboli.
• Large PEs tend to cause more vague, poorly localized pain, or NO PAIN AT ALL!