Performance of the Pulmonary Embolism Rule-out Criteria (the PERC Rule) Combined with Low Clinical Probability in High Prevalence Population

Abstract

article Introduction: PERC rule was created to rule out pulmonary embolism (PE) without further exams, with resid- ual PE riskb2%. Its safety is currently not con! rmed in high PE prevalence populations even when combined with low clinical probability assessed by revised Geneva score (RGS). As PERC rule and RGS are 2 similar ex- plicit rules with many redundant criteria, we hypothesized that the combination of PERC rule with gestalt clinical probability could resolve this limitation. Methods: We collected prospectively documented clinical gestalt assessments and retrospectively calculated PERC rules and RGS from a prospective study of PE suspected patients. We analyzed performance of combi- nations of negative PERC with low clinical probability assessed by both methods in high overall PE prevalence