I have been scheduled for a chest ct scan due to elevated a d-dimer level of 512.  I am a 51 yr old white male with no health concerns.  No difficulty breathing.  No chest pain.  In fact I exercise regularly.  My weight is high.  I am 240 lbs at 6 ft tall.  I know I need to lose weight and I am trying.  My Dr says he is not overly concerned he just want to rule out DVT or susceptibility of a PE.  I am an airline pilot and he wants to make sure that I am not at a higher risk of anything.  My wife is a nurse and I can tell she is concerned about my elevated d-dimer level.  What do you think?
Hello, So far your question is concerned a bit more knowledge about history and examination may be needed to reach a conclusive diagnosis. Keeping in view the provided information (age factor, pilot by occupation, overweight), it seems that you probably are at an increased risk of developing deep vein thrombosis and consequent pulmonary embolism. Sometimes, small and transient episodes of pulmonary embolism may go unnoticed. Still it may be there and can be evidenced by elevated D-dimer levels. So my suggestion at the moment is not to ignore these lab findings and consult a coagulation specialist/hematologist near you and get yourself thoroughly evaluated and examined to exclude the chance of any serious pathology and to manage it as early as possible if something turns out to be there. Hope I have answered your query. Let me know if I can assist you further.