PE stands for which medical condition?

• A. Pulmonary Edema
• B. Pulmonary Embolus
• C. Pulmonary Embolism
• D. Pul pul?

Answer: (C)

PE stands for pulmonary embolism, a blockage in a pulmonary artery usually caused by a traveling clot. The key idea is that the abbreviation refers to the disease state—the obstruction itself—more than the clot as a particle. An embolus is the actual clot or material; an embolism is the event of it lodging and blocking a vessel. That’s why the common expansion is pulmonary embolism, not pulmonary edema (fluid in the lungs) or pulmonary embolus (the clot itself), and the quirky “Pul pul?” isn’t a medical term.