ObjectiveTo evaluate the predictive value of the high-sensitivity cardiac troponin I (hs-cTnI) in patients with acute pulmonary embolism (APE). MethodsIn a retrospective cohort study,272 consecutive patients with APE were reviewed and the 30-days death and in-hospital adverse events were evaluated. The patients were classified according to hs-cTnI value into a high hs-cTnI group and a low hs-cTnI group. The simple pulmonary embolism severity index (sPESI) was used for clinical risk determination. The adverse event was defined as intravenous thrombolytic therapy,noninvasive ventilator support to maintain oxygen saturation >90% and suffered with severe complications. The correlations of hs-cTnI with sPESI score,30-days adverse events and mortality were analyzed. The Kaplan-Meier curves and the log-rank test were used to compare time-to-event survival. Stepwise multivariate logistic regression analysis models were used to determine the incremental prognostic value of sPESI score and hs-cTnI. ResultsThe incidence of 30-day death (6.1%),renal failure (14.6%),bleeding (13.4%) and thrombolytic therapy (7.9%) were higher in the high hs-cTnI group than those in the low hs-cTnI group (P values were 0.009,<0.001,0.018 and 0.003,respectively). The patients with sPESI ≥1 and low hs-cTnI had greater free adverse events survival (P=0.005). hs-cTnI provided incremental predictive value for in-hospital adverse events,beyond the sPESI score (P<0.001). Conclusionhs-cTnI has excellent negative predictive value of APE prognosis,especially when used combined with sPESI score.
ObjectivesTo investigate the clinical and imaging characteristics of pleural effusion in patients with acute pulmonary embolism (APE).MethodsComputed tomographic pulmonary angiography (CTPA) scans and clinical data of suspected APE patients from January 2014 to December 2018 were analyzed.ResultsA total of 1024 suspected APE patients underwent CTPA examination in the imaging department of our hospital. Two hundred patients (19.5%) were diagnosed with APE. Imaging findings of pleural effusion were revealed in 70 cases (35.0%). The majority of APE patients without pleural effusion were males (82.3% vs. 64.3%, P<0.01), and the majority of APE patients with pleural effusion were females (35.7% vs. 17.7%, P<0.01). Most of the effusions were bilateral, small to moderate, with peripheral embolism (62.9%, P<0.05). Pulmonary consolidation, atelectasis and ground-glass opacity were common manifestations of CTPA. Compared with patients with simple pulmonary embolism, pulmonary embolism with pleural effusion was more common (62.9% and 33.8%, respectively, OR=3.279 and 95%CI 1.798 - 6.091, P<0.001). Diagnostic thoracic puncture was performed in 6 cases (8.6%). Pleural effusion was exudate in these 6 patients, with normal blood sugar and neutrophils predominated.ConclusionsAbout one third of APE patients are associated with pleural effusion, which most presented with small and bilateral pleural effusions. The main embolism associated with pleural effusion is peripheral embolism. There is a significant correlation between pulmonary consolidation and pleural effusion. Pleural effusion is mostly exudate and neutrophils often predominate.
ObjectiveTo explore the diagnostic value of the bedside echocardiogram for different risk stratification of patients with suspected pulmonary embolism. MethodsPatients with suspected pulmonary embolism in the emergency department of the Second Afflicted Hospital Xi'an Jiaotong University between July 2013 to December 2015 were included. According the Wells scores, they were divided into a low risk group (0-2 points), a intermediate risk group (3-6 points) and a high risk group (>6 points). All patients were underwent the bedside echocardiogram diagnosis, and the diagnostic value of the echocardiography for pulmonary embolism, the characteristics of different risk stratification of patients were analyzed by SPSS 18.0 software. Results115 patients with suspected pulmonary embolism were included, of which 20 were in the low risk group, 73 were in the medium risk group, and 22 were in the high risk group. The incidence of pulmonary embolism among the three groups was significantly different (high-risk vs. medium risk vs. low-risk: 90.9% vs. 76.7% vs. 15.0%, P<0.05), and the higher Wells scores gets, the greater possibility of having the pulmonary embolism. For the intermediate-risk group, the incidence of pulmonary embolism was significantly higher in patients with positive ultrasonic results than those with the negative ultrasonic results (87.3% vs. 44.4%, P<0.05). The predication of the ultrasonic positive and the negative in the low and high risk groups had no statistical differences (P>0.05). The result of echocardiogram showed that the right ventricular end-diastolic diameter, right ventricular end-diastolic transverse diameter, right atrial end-diastolic transverse diameter, RV/LV, RA/LA in the high risk group and the intermediate risk group were significantly higher than those in the low risk group (all P values <0.05). The right ventricular anterior wall activity in the low risk group was higher than that in the high risk group (P<0.05), but this difference was not found between the high risk group and the intermediate risk group. ConclusionBedside echocardiogram can be used as the diagnosis and differential diagnosis methods of suspected pulmonary embolism, and it has relatively higher diagnostic value for intermediate to high risk patients predicted by the Wells scores than low risk ones.
To assess the efficacy and safety of thrombolytic therapy. Electronic search was applied to the Cochrane Airways Group register (MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL standardized searches) with the date up to 2003 April. Hand searched respiratory journals and meeting abstracts. All randomized controlled trials comparing thrombolytic therapy with heparin alone or surgical intervention (eg. embolectomy) met the inclusion criteria. Two reviewers independently selected trials, assessed trial quality and extracted the data.
Objective To compare the prognostic value of different types of simplified Pulmonary Embolism Severity Index (sPESI) in patients with acute pulmonary embolism (APE), so as to select the best scoring system for clinical application. Methods We retrospectively collected the data of consecutive patients with APE in the Fourth People’s Hospital of Zigong City from January 1st, 2014 to January 1st, 2019. The endpoint was 1-month all-cause mortality. We tried to modify sPESI by replacing arterial oxyhaemoglobin saturation with arterial partial pressure of oxygen / fraction of inspired oxygen (new scoring system named psPESI), and modify sPESI by replacing arterial oxyhaemoglobin saturation with saturation of pulse oxygen / fraction of inspired oxygen (new scoring system named ssPESI), and analyzed the area under the receiver-operating characteristic curve (AUC), net reclassification improvement (NRI), integrated discrimination improvement (IDI), calibration and decision curve. Results A total of 280 patients (109 with low-risk APE, 155 with intermediate-risk APE, and 16 with high-risk APE) were enrolled in the study. Of these patients, 165 (58.93%) were male, and the 1-month all-cause mortality rate was 10.71% (30/280). The AUCs of sPESI, psPESI and ssPESI were 0.756, 0.822 and 0.807, respectively, and the AUC of ssPESI was higher than that of sPESI (P=0.038) but not lower than that of psPESI (P=0.388). Comparing ssPESI with sPESI, the NRI was 0.928 (P<0.001) and the IDI was 0.084 (P<0.001); comparing ssPESI with psPESI, the NRI was 0.041 (P=0.227) and the IDI was –0.028 (P=0.060). The psPESI (Hosmer-Lemeshow test χ2=12.591, P=0.182) and ssPESI (Hosmer-Lemeshow test χ2=4.204, P=0.897) were well-calibrated in the internal validation cohort and obtained more net benefits within wide threshold probabilities than sPESI. Conclusion Since the saturation of pulse oxygen is non-invasive and easy to obtain, and the predictive ability of ssPESI is similar to that of psPESI, it is recommended that ssPESI be used as a new scoring system to evaluate the prognosis of APE.
ObjectiveTo investigate diagnostic and prognostic value of pulmonary embolism severity index (PESI), troponin I (cTnI) and brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) in patients with acute pulmonary embolism (APE). MethodsA total of 96 patients confirmed with APE were collected from January 2010 to January 2013, and 50 cases of non-APE controls were also selected in the same period. According to the PESI scores, patients were divided into low-risk, mid-risk, and highrisk group. According to the results of cTnI and BNP, patients were divided into positive group and negative group. Then, we evaluated the diagnostic and prognostic value of the PESI score, cTnI and BNP for patients with APE. ResultsFor the APE patients, the higher the risk was, the higher the constituent ratio of massive and sub-massive APE was (P<0.01). In the cTnI positive group, massive and sub-massive APE accounted for 82.9%, and in the cTnI negative group, non-massive APE was up to 81.9%; in the BNP positive group, massive and sub-massive APE accounted for 73.3%, and in the BNP negative group, non-massive APE was up to 86.3%. The patients with positive cTnI and BNP had a higher rate of right ventricular dysfunction, cardiogenic shock and mortality than the negative group (P<0.01). ConclusionThe combined detection of cTnI, BNP and PESI score is important in the diagnosis and risk stratification in APE patients.
ObjectiveTo explore the early predictive value of Wells score and D-dimer for acute pulmonary embolism. MethodsEighty-two cases with acute pulmonary embolism comfirmed by computed tomography pulmonary angiography and (or) lung ventilation/perfusion scan were retrospectively studied from October 2013 to October 2014 in our hospital. Another 82 cases without acute pulmonary embolism in the chest pain center simultaneously were selected as control group. The data on admission were analyzed including Wells score, D-dimer, pH, PCO2, PO2, P(A-a)O2, brain natriuretic peptide, troponin I of two groups of patients. Relevant variables were selected by multivariate logistic regression analysis. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was made by sensitivity as the ordinate and 1 minus specificity as abscissa. The area under ROC curve (AUC) for relevant variables was calculated and the variable with higher AUC was selected. The best threshold, sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV) and negative predictive value (NPV) were achieved from the ROC curves. ResultsThe multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that Wells score (OR=8.114, 95%CI 1.894-34.761, P=0.005) and D-dimer (OR=1.009, 95%CI 1.001-1.017, P=0.021) could predict APE early. The AUC, sensitivity, specificity, PPV, NPV of Wells score for the early prediction of patients with acute pulmonary embolism were 0.990, 50.0%, 100.0%, 100.0%, 66.7%, respectively. The AUC, sensitivity, specificity, PPV, NPV of D-dimer for the early prediction of patients with acute pulmonary embolism were 0.986, 95.1%, 97.6%, 97.5%, 95.2%, respectively. ConclusionWells score and D-dimer have high predictive value in patients with acute pulmonary embolism, and can be used in preliminary screening of acute pulmonary embolism in the emergency department.