Rising incidence of pulmonary embolism in modern China

摘要

Pulmonary embolism (PE) used to be thought to be rare in China. Traditional teaching by such authorities as Snapper, who was highly regarded in old China as one of the most astute diagnosticians, was that PE was uncommon in China. As a matter of fact, he did not even mention it in his book "Chinese lessons to western medicine", published in 1941. The rarity of pulmonary embolism was even more remarkable when one considered the widespread use of birth control pills among the Chinese women of child-bearing age.