Clinical characteristics of acute pulmonary thromboembolism in Korea.
BACKGROUND
Acute pulmonary thromboembolism (APTE) remains an important cause of morbidity and mortality in Western countries. In Korea, both the incidence and the mortality rate of APTE were thought to be low compared to Western countries. We performed the present study to investigate the current status of APTE in Korea.


METHODS
Eight hundred and eight registry patients with APTE were analyzed with respect to clinical symptoms and signs, the presence of underlying diseases or predisposing factors, diagnostic methods, treatment and clinical course.


RESULTS
The most common risk factors were prolonged immobilization (22.9%), deep venous thrombosis (22.0%), a recent operation (19.2%), and cancer (15.8%). The most common symptoms were dyspnea (78.6%), and chest pain (26.9%). The most common abnormality on chest radiography was effusion. The overall mortality rate at 3 months was 11.0%. Multivariate logistic regression analysis demonstrated that increased mortality risk was independently associated with the following baseline factors: onset in hospital (OR 1.88; 95% CI 1.03-3.42; p=0.03), lung cancer (OR 9.20; 95% CI 1.96-43.27; p=0.005), tachycardia (OR 3.50; 95% CI 1.86-6.60; p=0.0001), cardiogenic shock (OR 6.74; 95% CI 2.73-16.64; p=0.0001), and cyanosis (OR 3.45; 95% CI 1.27-9.44; p=0.01).


CONCLUSIONS
Some differences did exist for the risk factors, symptoms, chest X-ray findings, mortality rate and prognostic factors as compared with those for Western patients. These results can prove especially helpful in the diagnosis as well as for the treatment of patients with APTE.
Division of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, College of Medicine, Korea University Anam Hospital 126-1, 5Ka, Anam-Dong, Sungbuk-Ku, Seoul, 136-075, South Korea.
Sangyeub
S
Lee
Hyecheol
H
Jeong
Kwangho
K
In
Sehwa
S
Yoo
Seokchan
S
Kim
Jaeyeol
J
Kim
Sangmyeon
S
Park
Taesun
T
Shim
Jaeho
J
Lee
Hwasik
H
Moon
D000208:Acute Disease; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007723:Korea / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011655:Pulmonary Embolism / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology / Q000401:mortality; D012042:Registries; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D015996:Survival Rate