Demographic characteristics of patients with pulmonary thromboembolism

Abstract

Objective: Pulmonary thromboembolism (PTE) is a common disease with high mortality and difficult diagnosis. The incidence in our country cannot be calculated because there is no adequate and regular data. In our study, we aimed to investigate the demographic characteristics, risk factors, incidence, Wells and Geneva scores diagnostic and treatment methods of the patients in our emergency department with a diagnosis of PTE. Methods: Files of the 112 patients who were admitted to Erciyes University Medical Faculty Emergency Department between January 2010 - February 2012 were analyzed retrospectively. Data were analyzed with SPSS 17.0 statistical software. Results: The mean age of patients was 65.02 ± 16.23. Forty-one (36.6%) of the patients were male and 71 (63.4%) were female. The most common complaint of patients was shortness of breath (81.3%), respectively. Immobilization(35.7%) and history of previous surgery (19.6%) were among the risk factors of the patients. Average troponin levels of the patients was 0.13 ± 0.48 ng/L and average d-dimer levels was 12.698.12 ± 8.779.92 µg/L. Geneva scores of the patients were: 4 patients (3.6%) low score, 88 patients (78.6%) medium score and 20 patients (17.9%) high score. Wells Clinical Probability scores of the patients were; 1 patient (0.9%) low probability, 74 patients (66.1%) intermediate probability and 37 patients (33%) high probability. In the treatment of patients; heparin infusion (36.6%), enoxaparin sodium (59.8%) and tPA (3.6%) were used. Conclusion: In spite of improvements in diagnosis and treatment methods, pulmonary embolism diagnosis is stil a problem. The first step to diagnosis in patients with risk factors begin to suspect. J Clin Exp Invest 2015; 6 (1): 10-15 Key words: pulmonary embolism, diagnosis, treatment, demographic characteristics