Pulmonary Embolism Risk in Patients Presenting with Syncope

In a 2016 high-profile study that evaluated all inpatients at 11 hospitals with first-time syncope, regardless of other symptoms, pulmonary embolism (PE) was identified in 17% (NEJM JW Gen Med Nov. 15 2016 and N Engl J Med 2016; 375:1524). The authors of the current study prospectively examined 30-day outcomes in emergency department (ED) patients with syncope who were evaluated for PE at the treating physician's discretion. The authors pooled data from two studies (one U.S., one Canadian) with slightly different inclusion criteria and methods, but subgroup analyses suggest the data are suitable for combination.

Among roughly 9100 patients with syncope recruited from 17 large EDs, 547 (6%) were evaluated for PE, 56 (0.6%) had PE identified, …