Mortality Risk in Patients with Acute Pulmonary Embolism

Patients with unknown risk — with no cardiac marker or echocardiogram assessments — had higher mortality than patients with low-risk or submassive PE.

Acute pulmonary embolism (PE) is a high-risk clinical condition, with some subsets of patients having much greater risk for dying. In a prospective cohort (2018–2021), Italian investigators evaluated outcomes of 5200 patients with acute symptomatic PE at 182 hospitals. Most patients were stratified into low-risk PE (no evidence of right ventricular [RV] dysfunction), submassive PE (hemodynamically stable, but with RV dysfunction identified by high troponin level or high brain natriuretic peptide [BNP] level, or by echocardiogram), and massive PE (shock or cardiac arrest). However, 5% of patients had no laboratory or echocardiogram evaluation for RV function.

In-hospital mortality was 3.4%, and 30-day mortality was 4.8%. Among low-risk, subma…

Reviewing Author

Daniel D. Dressler, MD, MSc, MHM, FACP

Disclosures

RoyaltiesMcGraw-Hill; Elsevier

Editorial BoardsMedical Clinics of North America; Caribbean Medical Journal International Advisory Panel (2021–2026)

Daniel D. Dressler, MD, MSc, MHM, FACP

Disclosures

RoyaltiesMcGraw-Hill; Elsevier

Editorial BoardsMedical Clinics of North America; Caribbean Medical Journal International Advisory Panel (2021–2026)

Mortality Risk in Patients with Acute Pulmonary Embolism

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Reviewing Author