Project description:BackgroundIn numerous high-risk medical and surgical conditions, a greater volume of patients undergoing treatment in a given setting or facility is associated with better survival. For patients with pulmonary embolism, the relation between the number of patients treated in a hospital (volume) and patient outcome is unknown.MethodsWe studied discharge records from 186 acute care hospitals in Pennsylvania for a total of 15 531 patients for whom the primary diagnosis was pulmonary embolism. The study outcomes were all-cause mortality in hospital and within 30 days after presentation for pulmonary embolism and the length of hospital stay. We used logistic models to study the association between hospital volume and 30-day mortality and discrete survival models to study the association between in-hospital mortality and time to hospital discharge.ResultsThe median annual hospital volume for pulmonary embolism was 20 patients (interquartile range 10-42). Overall in-hospital mortality was 6.0%, whereas 30-day mortality was 9.3%. In multivariable analysis, very-high-volume hospitals (> or = 42 cases per year) had a significantly lower odds of in-hospital death (odds ratio [OR] 0.71, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.51-0.99) and of 30-day death (OR 0.71, 95% CI 0.54-0.92) than very-low-volume hospitals (< 10 cases per year). Although patients in the very-high-volume hospitals had a slightly longer length of stay than those in the very-low-volume hospitals (mean difference 0.7 days), there was no association between volume and length of stay.InterpretationIn hospitals with a high volume of cases, pulmonary embolism was associated with lower short-term mortality. Further research is required to determine the causes of the relation between volume and outcome for patients with pulmonary embolism.
Project description:Acute pulmonary embolism (PE) is a frequently diagnosed condition. Prediction of in-hospital deterioration is challenging with current risk models. The Calgary Acute Pulmonary Embolism (CAPE) score was recently derived to predict in-hospital adverse PE outcomes but has not yet been externally validated. Retrospective cohort study of normotensive acute pulmonary embolism cases diagnosed in our emergency department between 2017 and 2019. An external validation of the CAPE score was performed in this population for prediction of in-hospital adverse outcomes and a secondary outcome of 30-day all-cause mortality. Performance of the simplified Pulmonary Embolism Severity Index (sPESI) and Bova score was also evaluated. 712 patients met inclusion and exclusion criteria, with 536 patients having a sPESI score of 1 or more. Among this population, the CAPE score had a weak discriminative power to predict in-hospital adverse outcomes, with a calculated c-statistic of 0.57. In this study population, an external validation study found weak discriminative power of the CAPE score to predict in-hospital adverse outcomes among normotensive PE patients. Further efforts are needed to define risk assessment models that can identify normotensive PE patients at risk for in hospital deterioration. Identification of such patients will better guide intensive care utilization and invasive procedural management of PE.
Project description:Approximately 1-2 per 1000 pregnancies are complicated by venous thromboembolism (VTE). VTE includes deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE) and the diagnostic management of pregnancy-related VTE is challenging. Current guidelines vary greatly in their approach to diagnosing PE in pregnancy as they base their recommendations on scarce and weak evidence. The pregnancy-adapted YEARS diagnostic algorithm is well tolerated and is the most efficient diagnostic algorithm for pregnant women with suspected PE, with 39% of women not requiring computed tomographic pulmonary angiography. Low-molecular-weight heparin is the first-choice anticoagulant treatment in pregnancy and should be continued until 6 weeks postpartum and for a minimum of 3 months. Direct oral anticoagulants should be avoided in women who want to breastfeed. Management of delivery needs a multidisciplinary approach in order to decide on an optimal delivery plan. Neuraxial analgesia can be given in most patients, provided time windows since last low-molecular-weight heparin dose are respected. Women with a history of VTE are at risk of recurrence during pregnancy and in the postpartum period. Therefore, in most women with a history of VTE, thromboprophylaxis in subsequent pregnancies is indicated. The reviews of this paper are available via the supplemental material section.
Project description:Time and dose related expression profiles of rat right heart tissue in microsphere bead model for Pulmonary embolism Keywords: Time course and dose response in experimental PE
Project description:Pulmonary embolism (PE) is the most feared clinical presentation of venous thromboembolism (VTE). Patients with PE have traditionally been treated in hospital; however, many are at low risk of adverse outcomes and current guidelines suggest outpatient treatment as an option. Outpatient treatment of PE offers several advantages, including reduced risk of hospital-acquired conditions and potential cost savings. Despite this, patients with low-risk PE are still frequently hospitalized for treatment. This narrative review summarizes current guideline recommendations for the identification of patients with low-risk PE who are potentially suitable for outpatient treatment, using prognostic assessment tools (e.g. the Pulmonary Embolism Severity Index [PESI] and simplified PESI) and clinical exclusion criteria (e.g. Hestia criteria) alone or in combination with additional cardiac assessments. Treatment options are discussed along with recommendations for the follow-up of patients managed in the non-hospital environment. The available data on outpatient treatment of PE are summarized, including details on patient selection, anticoagulant choice, and short-term outcomes in each study. Accumulating evidence suggests that outcomes in patients with low-risk PE treated as outpatients are at least as good as, if not better than, those of patients treated in the hospital. With mounting pressures on health care systems worldwide, increasing the proportion of patients with PE treated as outpatients has the potential to reduce health care burdens associated with VTE.
Project description:Background. The Pulmonary Embolism Severity Index (PESI) score can risk-stratify patients with PE but its widespread use is uncertain. With the PESI, we compared length of hospital stay between low, moderate, and high risk PE patients and determined the number of low risk PE patients who were discharged early. Methods. PE patients admitted to St. Joseph Mercy Oakland Hospital from January 2005 to August 2010 were screened. PESI score stratified acute PE patients into low (<85), moderate (86-105), and high (>105) risk categories and their length of hospital stay was compared. Patients with low risk PE discharged early (≤3 days) were calculated. Results. Among 315 PE patients, 51.7% were at low risk. No significant difference in hospital stay between low (7.11 ± 3 d) and moderate (6.88 ± 2.9 d) risk, p > 0.05, as well as low and high risk (7.28 ± 3.0 d), p > 0.05, was found. 9% of low risk patients were discharged ≤ 3 days. Conclusions. There was no significant difference in length of hospital stay between low and high risk groups and only a small number of low risk patients were discharged from the hospital early suggesting that risk tools like PESI may not have a widespread use.
Project description:Pulmonary embolism (PE) mortality has decreased in the last decades but acute PE is still associated with significant fatality. Specific information on fatal PE patients could guide how to efficiently improve PE management but to date this information has been scarce. All the individuals with PE defined as an immediate or underlying cause of death were collected from the death certificate archive of the Hospital District of Helsinki and Uusimaa, Finland, including approximately 1.7 million inhabitants (2015-2018). Crude and age-adjusted mortality rates and proportional mortality were calculated, and the distribution of comorbidities at death and death location (in-hospital, palliative care, or out-of-hospital) was analyzed. In total, 451 individuals with fatal PE were identified (238 females) with a mean age of 72 years (SD 13.5 year). Most of the fatal PEs (n = 264, 54.5%) occurred out-of-hospital and surprisingly, 70 (26.5%) of these individuals s had a history of mental illness or substance abuse. The out-of-hospital resuscitation was attempted in 108 (40.1%) individuals but only 7 (6.5%) received thrombolysis during resuscitation. Fatal PE occurred during hospitalization in 98 individuals and in 54 (55.1%), the diagnosis was only made postmortem. Majority of the fatal PEs occurred out-of-hospital and were diagnosed postmortem whereas only small proportion of deaths occurred to in-hospital PE patients. The earlier diagnosis of PE, which may be accomplished by raising the general awareness of PE, is necessary to prevent these sudden deaths of whom many occurred to individuals with history of mental illnesses or substance abuse.
Project description:BackgroundPulmonary embolism (PE) as a preventable and potentially fatal noncommunicable disease was believed to have a lower incidence in Asian populations compared to Western populations. However, the incidence and mortality rates of PE in China and the impact of venous thromboembolism (VTE) prevention system constructions on PE still lack nationwide evidence.MethodsFor this nationwide hospital-based observational study, we used data from the National Hospital Quality Monitoring System (HQMS) and public database in China. We estimated the incidence and in-hospital mortality rates of PE by age group, sex, and regions of geographical and socioeconomic level. VTE prevention and management system constructions were quantified by geographical density. We then calculated the incidence and mortality rates in different conditions of VTE prevention and management system construction.FindingsDuring the 12 months period between January and December 2021, a total number of 200,112 PE patients and 14,123 deaths were recorded from 5101 hospitals in the HQMS database. The incidence of PE was 14.19 (200,112, 95% CI 14.13-14.26) per 100,000 population and the mortality rate was 1.00 (95% CI 0.99-1.02) per 100,000 population. The incidence of PE was higher in male patients (14.43 per 100,000 population) than in female patients (13.95 per 100,000 population). Disparities of incidence and mortality rates were shown within age groups and geographical regions. The incidence and mortality rates of PE showed decreasing trend with increasing geographical density of VTE-related facilities and VTE prevention system developments.InterpretationChina had a substantially large number of PE patients. The incidence and mortality rates of PE showed disparities in terms of sex, age, and geography. The incidence and mortality rates of PE decrease across regions with increasing levels of socioeconomic development, potentially influenced by the existing VTE prevention and management systems. Optimizing the health policies and healthcare investment in VTE prevention may help reduce the disease burden of PE.FundingCAMS Innovation Fund for Medical Sciences (CIFMS) (2023-I2M-A-014); National High Level Hospital Clinical Research Funding (2022-NHLHCRF-LX-01-0108); National Key Research and Development Program of China (2023YFC2507200); Discipline-Innovation and Talent-Introduction Program for Colleges and Universities (111 Plan, B23038).
Project description:Rats were given pulmonary embolism by i.v. injection of 25 micron polystyrene microspheres or 0.01% Tween20 solution as vehicle control Embolism of microspheres is irreversible and causes dose dependent pulmonary hypertension Keywords: time course and dose response
Project description:ObjectivesTo evaluate the association between experience in the management of acute pulmonary embolism, reflected by hospital case volume, and mortality.DesignMultinational population based cohort study using data from the Registro Informatizado de la Enfermedad TromboEmbólica (RIETE) registry between 1 January 2001 and 31 August 2018.Setting353 hospitals in 16 countries.Participants39 257 consecutive patients with confirmed diagnosis of acute symptomatic pulmonary embolism.Main outcome measurePulmonary embolism related mortality within 30 days after diagnosis of the condition.ResultsPatients with acute symptomatic pulmonary embolism admitted to high volume hospitals (>40 pulmonary embolisms per year) had a higher burden of comorbidities. A significant inverse association was seen between annual hospital volume and pulmonary embolism related mortality. Admission to hospitals in the highest quarter (that is, >40 pulmonary embolisms per year) was associated with a 44% reduction in the adjusted odds of pulmonary embolism related mortality at 30 days compared with admission to hospitals in the lowest quarter (<15 pulmonary embolisms per year; adjusted risk 1.3% v 2.3%; adjusted odds ratio 0.56 (95% confidence interval 0.33 to 0.95); P=0.03). Results were consistent in all sensitivity analyses. All cause mortality at 30 days was not significantly reduced between the two quarters (adjusted odds ratio 0.78 (0.50 to 1.22); P=0.28). Survivors showed little change in the odds of recurrent venous thromboembolism (odds ratio 0.76 (0.49 to 1.19)) or major bleeding (1.07 (0.77 to 1.47)) between the low and high volume hospitals.ConclusionsIn patients with acute symptomatic pulmonary embolism, admission to high volume hospitals was associated with significant reductions in adjusted pulmonary embolism related mortality at 30 days. These findings could have implications for management strategies.