Analysis of clinical characteristics in 1940 patients with acute pulmonary embolism

The clinical characteristics of acute pulmonary embolism (APE) according to mortality risk has been partly explored. Further research is required in light of the latest guide update on risk stratification for APE.

We collected the data from hospitalized patients with APE. Patients were classified according to the 2019 European Society of Cardiology's (ESC) guidelines. The clinical traits between different risk stratification of APE was investigated.

A total of 1940 patients had APE. Patients who were stratified as high risk showed the highest frequency of both syncope (4.5 % vs 6.6 % vs 12.7 %; P = 0.002) and dyspnea (61.9 % vs 73.0 % vs 73.8 %, P = 0.007) when compared to the other two groups. The rates of deep venous thrombosis (DVT) were: 49.4 % in low-risk stratification, 63.2 % in intermediate-risk stratification, and 68.1 % in high-risk stratification, (P_{for trend} = 0.001), while the proportion of low-risk stratification patients increased (2.5 %-13.3 %, P_{for trend}<0.001).

In conclusion, clinical characteristics differ among pulmonary embolism patients with different risk stratification. Furthermore, the percentage of low-risk patients increased progressively while overall in-hospital death rates among APE patients gradually decreased.