COVID-19-Related Pulmonary Embolism: Incidence, Characteristics, and Risk Factors

The 2020 world pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was initially reported in December 2019 in Wuhan, China, which has since then spread globally. Several studies on patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) describe a high risk of pulmonary embolism (PE). The majority of PEs in patients with COVID-19 were in the segmental arteries. Therefore, this study aims to determine the rate of PE in patients with COVID-19 at King Abdulaziz Medical City in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Other risk factors of PE were taken into consideration.

This study is a single-center, retrospective, cross-sectional study that used a non-probability consecutive sampling technique to select the patients. The local institutional review boards approved the study protocol. Overall, 91 consecutive patients who were older than 18 years of age and who had a computerized tomography (CT) pulmonary angiography were included in this study.

Ninety-one patients met the inclusion and exclusion criteria, of whom 46 (50.5%) were females and 45 (49.5%) were males. The study population's age ranged from 19 to 87 with a mean age of 59 ± 15 years. PE was documented in 11 patients (12.1%). Seventy-three patients underwent CT scan angiography during COVID-19 manifestation, while 18 patients had it after recovering from COVID-19. Out of the 11 patients with PE, eight were diagnosed with PE while being COVID-19 positive, and three were diagnosed with PE after recovery from COVID-19.

Several potential clinical implications can be concluded for this study. Firstly, effective evaluation of the risk of PE in patients with COVID-19 is based on clinical findings such as chest pain, hemoptysis, lower limb edema, and, most significantly, shortness of breath. Secondly, measuring D-dimer remains an effective test for ruling out PE in patients with COVID-19 as in patients without COVID-19.