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The 2015 American College of Physicians (ACP) guideline for the evaluation of pulmonary embolism (PE) included use of risk stratification tools such as the PE Rule Out Criteria (PERC), Wells Score, and age-adjusted D-dimer testing. Malignancy is a risk factor for PE and although cancer patients were included in the derivation and validation of these risk-stratification tools, how often clinicians use them in this population is not known.
Researchers evaluated performance of these tools in a retrospective chart review of 380 patients with malignancy at a single oncology emergency department who underwent computed tomographic pulmonary angiography (CTPA). Overall, PE was diagnosed in 11% of patients and ACP guidelines were followed in 56% of p…