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Time trends in pulmonary embolism in the United States: evidence of overdiagnosis.

ABSTRACT: Computed tomographic pulmonary angiography (CTPA) may improve detection of life-threatening pulmonary embolism (PE), but this sensitive test may have a downside: overdiagnosis and overtreatment (finding clinically unimportant emboli and exposing patients to harms from unnecessary treatment).To assess the impact of CTPA on national PE incidence, mortality, and treatment complications, we conducted a time trend analysis using the Nationwide Inpatient Sample and Multiple Cause-of-Death databases. We compared age-adjusted incidence, mortality, and treatment complications (in-hospital gastrointestinal tract or intracranial hemorrhage or secondary thrombocytopenia) of PE among US adults before (1993-1998) and after (1998-2006) CTPA was introduced.Pulmonary embolism incidence was unchanged before CTPA (P = .64) but increased substantially after CTPA (81% increase, from 62.1 to 112.3 per 100,000; P < .001). Pulmonary embolism mortality decreased during both periods: more so before CTPA (8% reduction, from 13.4 to 12.3 per 100,000; P < .001) than after (3% reduction, from 12.3 to 11.9 per 100,000; P = .02). Case fatality improved slightly before (8% decrease, from 13.2% to 12.1%; P = .02) and substantially after CTPA (36% decrease, from 12.1% to 7.8%; P < .001). Meanwhile, CTPA was associated with an increase in presumed complications of anticoagulation for PE: before CTPA, the complication rate was stable (P = .24), but after it increased by 71% (from 3.1 to 5.3 per 100,000; P < .001).The introduction of CTPA was associated with changes consistent with overdiagnosis: rising incidence, minimal change in mortality, and lower case fatality. Better technology allows us to diagnose more emboli, but to minimize harms of overdiagnosis we must learn which ones matter.

SUBMITTER: Wiener RS

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3140219 | biostudies-literature | 2011 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Time trends in pulmonary embolism in the United States: evidence of overdiagnosis.

Wiener Renda Soylemez RS Schwartz Lisa M LM Woloshin Steven S

Archives of internal medicine 20110501 9

<h4>Background</h4>Computed tomographic pulmonary angiography (CTPA) may improve detection of life-threatening pulmonary embolism (PE), but this sensitive test may have a downside: overdiagnosis and overtreatment (finding clinically unimportant emboli and exposing patients to harms from unnecessary treatment).<h4>Methods</h4>To assess the impact of CTPA on national PE incidence, mortality, and treatment complications, we conducted a time trend analysis using the Nationwide Inpatient Sample and M ...[more]

PMID: 21555660

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Project description:BackgroundIt is well-known that patients with chronic kidney disease and end-stage renal disease are at increased risk of pulmonary embolism than patients with normal kidney function. However, the data on trends, outcomes, and predictors of mortality in pulmonary embolism patients with chronic kidney disease and end-stage renal disease in the United States are limited.MethodsWe queried the National Inpatient Sample database from 2010 to 2014. International Classification of Diseases-Ninth Revision-Clinical Modification codes were used to identify patients with normal kidney function, chronic kidney disease, and end-stage renal disease. The frequency of pulmonary embolism, complications, in-hospital mortality, and length of stay were calculated for each cohort. Multivariable logistic regression models were constructed to determine the predictors of mortality.ResultsIn the study population (2010-2014), there were 766,176 pulmonary embolism hospitalizations with normal kidney function, 79,824 with chronic kidney disease, and 9147 with end-stage renal disease. Among the study cohorts, the mortality rate was 2.7% in normal kidney function, 4.5% in chronic kidney disease, and 6.8% in end-stage renal disease hospitalizations. Median length of stay was highest in the end-stage renal disease cohort and lowest in the normal kidney function cohort. After adjusting for confounders, pulmonary embolism patients with chronic kidney disease died 1.15 times more often than those with normal kidney function and pulmonary embolism patients with end-stage renal disease died 4.2 times more often than those with normal kidney function.ConclusionThe mortality rate and length of stay in pulmonary embolism patients with chronic kidney disease and end-stage renal disease were significantly higher than those in pulmonary embolism patients with normal kidney function. Also, pulmonary embolism patients with chronic kidney disease and end-stage renal disease were at higher risk of in-hospital mortality than those with normal kidney function. There was statistically significant higher risk of mortality in elderly and Black patients with pulmonary embolism and concurrent chronic kidney disease or end-stage renal disease.

Project description:Pulmonary embolism (PE) is a devastating diagnosis which carries a high mortality risk. Echocardiography is often performed to risk stratify patients diagnosed with PE, and guide management strategies. Trends in the performance of echocardiography among patients with PE and its role in influencing outcomes is unknown.We analyzed the 2005 to 2014 National Inpatient Sample Database to identify patients with primary diagnosis of PE or secondary diagnosis of PE and ?1 of the following diagnoses: syncope, thrombolysis, acute deep vein thrombosis, acute cardiorespiratory failure, and secondary pulmonary hypertension. Trends in the performance of echocardiography and in-hospital mortality were analyzed. The admissions were divided into 2 groups with echocardiography, and without echocardiography, and 1:2 propensity score matching (PSM) was performed for comparison. The primary end-point was in-hospital mortality. The secondary endpoints were length of stay and total hospitalization costs. Odd ratios (OR) with confidence intervals (CI) were reported.A total of 299,536 unweighted PE cases were studied. Performance of echocardiography among patients with PE patients increased from 3.5% to 5.6%, whereas in-hospital mortality decreased from 4.2% to 3.7% between years 2005 and 2014. Before matching, patients who received an echocardiogram were more likely to be younger, African American, admitted to a large, urban teaching institute, and had higher rates of concurrent acute deep vein thrombosis, and acute respiratory failure. Post-PSM, patients who received echocardiography during hospitalization had lower in-hospital mortality (odds ratio 0.75, 95% confidence intervals (CI) 0.68-0.83; P?<?0.001), longer length of stay (median 6 days vs 5 days; P?<?.001) and higher mean hospitalization costs ($34,379 vs $27,803; P?<?.001) compared to those without echocardiography.Performance of echocardiography among patients with a PE is increasing and is associated with lower in-hospital mortality.

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Time trends in pulmonary embolism in the United States: evidence of overdiagnosis.

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Time trends in pulmonary embolism in the United States: evidence of overdiagnosis.

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