Pulmonary Embolism in the United States: A Report From the National PERT Consortium

Pulmonary embolism (PE) remains the third leading cause of cardiovascular-related mortality, and few efforts have been made to study it exclusively through real-world registry data. This research shows demographic and outcomes data from a real-world, PE-specific database, yielding a contemporary examination of PE care in the United States.

All data were extracted from the National PERT Consortium registry. This study included consecutive patients diagnosed with PE from October 2015 to June 2024 at 54 US sites. All patients were assigned a PE-specific risk stratification score based on available data. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data.

During the study period, 11,612 unique patients were included for analysis, with the majority (73.7%) classified as intermediate risk. Patients tended to be slightly obese (mean body mass index, 31.1 kg/m²) and were more frequently men (51.1%). A patient history of deep vein thrombosis was observed in 1 in 3 patients, and 1 in 4 had a history of malignancy. Patients with high-risk PE underwent intervention more frequently. Furthermore, patients with PE on average spent 4 days in the hospital. When evaluating survival by treatment types, 30-day and 1-year survival in patients who underwent catheter-based intervention were 95.1% and 92.3%, respectively. One-year survival was 67.8% for patients with high-risk PE.

Real-world data from the National PERT Consortium database demonstrate current practices in the care of patients with PE. Opportunities exist for better risk stratification and improvement in care across the spectrum of PE.