Performance of integrated pulmonary index for pulmonary embolism in dyspneic patients

The aim of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic capacity of integrated pulmonary index (IPI) in predicting the pulmonary embolism (PE) in patients admitted to emergency departments (ED) with dyspnea.

The acute dyspnea is one of the most common chief complaints in EDs. PE is a potentially fatal disease and the delay in specific therapy increases the worst outcomes.

This study is a prospective methodological study, in which we evaluated the diagnostic performance of the IPI in predicting PE in patients admitted to ED with dyspnea. ROC analysis was used for estimating the accuracy of IPI and OCRS.

Of the 144 patients included in the study, there were 20 (13.9 %) PE patients. In the ROC analysis, the best cut-off point for IPI was ≤ 2. For this cut-off point, the sensitivity and specificity of IPI were 100.0 % and 96.0 %, respectively. Besides, the accuracy of IPI was 96.5 % with a +LR of 24.8 and a -LR of 0.0.

IPI was a potential candidate for evaluating the respiratory status, and a limiting tool to prevent unnecessary diagnostic tests and save time in determining the treatment course in dyspneic patients at ED (Tab. 5, Fig. 3, Ref. 34).