title: Echocardiography Doppler in pulmonary embolism: right ventricular dysfunction as a predictor of mortality rate.
abstract: To test the hypothesis that right ventricular (RV) systolic dysfunction at the time of diagnosis of pulmonary embolism (PE) is a predictor of mortality rate, 126 consecutive patients with PE were examined with echocardiography Doppler (ED) on the day of diagnosis. RV function was assessed by evaluation of wall motion on a four-point scale. The material was divided into two groups: group A (n = 56) with normal or slightly reduced RV function and group B (n = 70) with moderately or severely reduced RV function. The overall mortality rate was 7.9% in the hospital and 15.1% within 1 year. Four deaths occurred in group A and 15 in group B (p = 0.04). All in-hospital deaths (n = 10) occurred in group B (p = 0.002). The variables associated with mortality rate were RV dysfunction and cancer (in-hospital, p = 0.002 and 0.004; 1 year, p = 0.04 and < 0.001, respectively). Nine (7.1%) deaths (all in-hospital) were caused by PE. Five of these patients had advanced-stage cancer. The in-hospital mortality rate in patients without cancer was 4%, all from PE and all in group B. In conclusion, RV dysfunction when diagnosis of PE is established is associated with mortality rate. A strategy for risk stratification of patients with PE with ED may be of clinical usefulness.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Physiology, Karolinska Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ribeiro
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Lindmarker
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Juhlin-Dannfelt
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Johnsson
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Jorfeldt
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D002423:Cause of Death; D015150:Echocardiography, Doppler; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015588:Observer Variation; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011655:Pulmonary Embolism / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000401:mortality* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D018497:Ventricular Dysfunction, Right