COPD and PE: A Clinical Dilemma
Open accessAbstract
Dyspnea in patients with known chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) can be a clinical challenge due to the nonspecific nature of atypical presentations. Typical features of fever, productive cough, and wheezing on presentation support COPD exacerbation, while absence of such findings may warrant further evaluation for underlying etiologies, including pulmonary embolism (PE). It is suspected that one in four patients with atypical COPD exacerbation may have PE as an underlying or concomitant cause of acute dyspnea. This review discusses the clinical presentation of COPD and PE, and presents an overview of the rationale for pursuing work-up for thromboembolic disease in the setting of known obstructive lung diseases.
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Symptoms such as dyspnea and wheezing, which are commonly linked to COPD, can also occur in other conditions like CHF, asthma, lung cancer, pneumonia, and interstitial lung diseases.
“Symptoms such as dyspnea and wheezing, which are commonly linked to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), can also occur in other conditions like congestive heart failure (CHF), asthma, lung cancer, pneumonia, and interstitial lung diseases [126,127].”
From Toward Safer Diagnoses: A SEIPS-Based Narrative Review of Diagnostic Errors (2026) · cites this paper as [126]
The Physical exam section identifies dyspnea and wheezing as features of COPD. The Introduction and Chest X-ray sections discuss dyspnea in heart failure, pneumonia, and asthma, but the cited paper does not establish that wheezing occurs in those conditions or address lung cancer and interstitial lung diseases as alternatives. (LLM, conf=0.87)
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Toward Safer Diagnoses: A SEIPS-Based Narrative Review of Diagnostic Errors
Yen, C., Epling, J. W., Rockwell, M., & Vaughn-Cooke, M. (2026) · Diagnostics · doi:10.3390/diagnostics16020347 · Cited by 6 · see citing works
- Authors
- Wood, K.
- Affiliations
- University of Wisconsin–Madison (US)
- Corresponding author
- Wood, Ken
- Venue
- International Journal of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2008-06
- Volume
- Volume 3
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 277-284
- ISSN
- 1176-9106 (ISSN-L)
- 1178-2005
- PMC
- PMC2629964
- OpenAlex
- W1689405614
- Cited by
- 34
- References
- 1
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2024: 4 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 4 · 2016: 3 · 2015: 1 · 2014: 1 · 2013: 7 · 2012: 1
- FWCI
- 0.20
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- International Journal of COPD (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
- Dove Medical Press (Taylor and Francis Group) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Internal Medicine › Venous Thromboembolism Diagnosis and Management
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Pulmonary and Respiratory Medicine › Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) Research
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Asthma and respiratory diseases
- Keywords
- chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, pulmonary embolism, COPD exacerbations, atypical presentation, dyspnea, obstructive lung disease, differential diagnosis
- MeSH terms
- Diagnostic Imaging, Humans, Pulmonary Embolism, Risk Factors, Global Health, Prevalence, Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive
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