Acute cardiac disorder or pneumonia and concomitant presence of pulmonary embolism

Rohacek, Martin; Szucs-Farkas, Zsolt; Pfortmüller, Carmen A.; Zimmermann, Heinz; Exadaktylos, Aristomenis (2012). Acute cardiac disorder or pneumonia and concomitant presence of pulmonary embolism. PLoS ONE, 7(10), e47418. Lawrence, Kans.: Public Library of Science 10.1371/journal.pone.0047418

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Purpose

To determine the frequency of apparent acute pulmonary embolism (PE) and of concomitant disease in computed tomography pulmonary angiography (CTPA); to compare the frequency of PE in patients with pneumonia or acute cardiac disorder (acute coronary syndrome, tachyarrhythmia, acute left ventricular heart failure or cardiogenic shock), with the frequency of PE in patients with none of these alternative chest pathologies (comparison group).
Methods

Retrospective analysis of all patients who received a CTPA at the emergency department (ED) within a period of four years and 5 months.
Results

Of 1275 patients with CTPA, 28 (2.2%) had PE and concomitant radiologic evidence of another chest disease; 3 more (0.2%) had PE and an acute cardiac disorder without radiological evidence of heart failure. PE was found in 11 of 113 patients (10%) with pneumonia, in 5 of 154 patients (3.3%) with an acute cardiac disorder and in 186 of 1008 patients (18%) in the comparison group. After adjustment for risk factors for thromboembolism and for other relevant patient’s characteristics, the proportion of CTPAs with evidence of PE in patients with an acute cardiac disorder or pneumonia was significantly lower than in the comparison group (OR 0.13, 95% CI 0.05–0.33, p<0.001 for patients with an acute cardiac disorder, and OR 0.45, 95% CI 0.23–0.89, p = 0.021 for patients with pneumonia).
Conclusion

The frequency of PE and a concomitant disease that can mimic PE was low. The presence of an acute cardiac disorder or pneumonia was associated with decreased odds of PE.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

04 Faculty of Medicine > Department of Intensive Care, Emergency Medicine and Anaesthesiology (DINA) > University Emergency Center
04 Faculty of Medicine > Department of General Internal Medicine (DAIM) > Clinic of General Internal Medicine > Centre of Competence for General Internal Medicine

UniBE Contributor:

Rohacek, Martin, Pfortmüller, Carmen, Zimmermann, Heinz (B), Exadaktylos, Aristomenis

ISSN:

1932-6203

Publisher:

Public Library of Science

Language:

English

Submitter:

Factscience Import

Date Deposited:

04 Oct 2013 14:34

Last Modified:

29 Mar 2023 23:32

Publisher DOI:

10.1371/journal.pone.0047418

PubMed ID:

23091623

Web of Science ID:

000310135800046

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.13514

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/13514 (FactScience: 220066)

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