To help diagnose a pulmonary embolism, your doctor will ask a variety of questions in order to get a clear and detailed picture of all of your and your relatives’ past and current health conditions. Your doctor will carefully examine you physically and perform blood tests and other examinations. Some of the tests commonly used to help diagnose pulmonary embolism include: D-dimer, electrocardiogram, chest X-ray, lower extremity vascular ultrasound, echocardiogram, spiral CT, nuclear imaging, pulmonary function tests, right heart catheterization, and Gu Qing, Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Fu Wai Hospital, Beijing.