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CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · Ibnosina Journal of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences 2024; 16(01): 021-025
DOI: 10.1055/s-0043-1777829
Original Article

Prognostic Value of Symptoms and Signs in Geriatric Acute Pulmonary Embolism—An Analytical Study

Serdar Özdemir 
1   Department of Emergency Medicine, University of Health Sciences Umraniye Training and Research Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey
,
Abuzer Özkan 
2   Department of Emergency Medicine, Health of Sciences University, Bağcılar Training and Research Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey
› Author Affiliations Funding and Sponsorship None.
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Abstract

Objective The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between symptoms and short-term mortality in geriatric patients presenting to the emergency department with acute pulmonary embolism.

Materials and Methods This retrospective cohort study was conducted to evaluate the data of geriatric patients admitted to the emergency department between September 01, 2022, and March 01, 2023. The study population comprised patients who presented with acute pulmonary embolism signs and symptoms. Demographic data, vital parameters, and symptoms were noted.

Results Of the 176 patients included in the final analysis, 55 (31.2%) were female. The median of age was 76 (25th–75th percentile: 72–82.5) years. The most common symptoms were dyspnea (61.9%), fatigue (27.2%), and syncope (23.8%). There was no statistically significant difference between the survivor and nonsurvivor groups in terms of symptoms (p-values for dyspnea, syncope, chest pain, back pain, hemoptysis, extremity pain, and fatigue: 0.804, 0.765, 0.154, 0.543, 0.675, 0.342, and 0.943, respectively) (chi-squared test).

Conclusion In patients presenting to the emergency department with acute pulmonary embolism, clinicians should not prioritize based on symptoms but should evaluate patients according to clinical severity scores.

Keywords

pulmonary embolism - mortality - symptom - dyspnea

Ethical Statement

Compliance with Ethical Standards: The tenets of the Helsinki agreement were followed throughout.


Ethical Approval

Ethical approval for the study was received from the local ethics committee of University of Health Sciences Ümraniye Training and Research Hospital (date 08/10/2023- number 256).


Informed Consent

We retrospectively reviewed secondary data recorded from the computer-based patient data system of the hospital and these data did not include any personal identifiable information; therefore, informed consent was waived.




Publication History

Article published online:
12 February 2024

© 2024. The Libyan Biotechnology Research Center. This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

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