Lupus Site - a guide for lupus patients and their families

A pulmonary embolism is the sudden blocking of an artery in a lung, usually by a blood clot.

Symptoms are a sudden onset of chest pain & shortness of breath, coughing, & fever.

Treatment is by anticoagulant drugs (e.g. Warfarin, Heparin) given intravenously in hospital.

It occurs more often in patients who have the antiphospholipid antibody, or lupus anticoagulant.