title: Acute pulmonary embolism after an earthquake in Japan.
abstract: There have been no reports on acute pulmonary embolism (APE) after earthquakes. Our aim was to clarify the actual the occurrence of APE following the 2004 Mid Niigata Prefecture earthquake in Japan, and to assess the risk factors for APE after the event. We sent questionnaires to 122 hospitals in the Niigata Prefecture after the earthquake. Cities, towns, and villages in the prefecture were classified into two areas (high evacuee rate area, and low evacuee rate area) due to the mean ratio of evacuees to the overall population during 1 week immediately after the earthquake. A rate of 5% and higher was encountered for the high evacuee rate area and a rate of < 5% was encountered for the low evacuee rate area. Ten out-of-hospital cases of APE (seven in the high evacuee rate area and three in the low evacuee rate area) were diagnosed within the first month after the earthquake. The relative risk of APE was high in the high evacuee rate area (13.09; P = 0.0002) and also higher in women (8.55; P = 0.04). All patients in the high evacuee rate area had stayed in their automobiles for long periods of time, but none had done so in the low evacuee rate area ( P = 0.008).
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, Sendai, Japan.
authors.forename: Masahito
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sakuma
authors.forename: Mashio
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nakamura
authors.forename: Kazuhiko
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hanzawa
authors.forename: Takao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kobayashi
authors.forename: Masayuki
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kuroiwa
authors.forename: Norifumi
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Nakanishi
authors.forename: Yoshiyuki
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Miyahara
authors.forename: Nobuhiro
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Tanabe
authors.forename: Norikazu
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Yamada
authors.forename: Takayuki
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kuriyama
authors.forename: Takeyoshi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kunieda
authors.forename: Tsuneaki
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Sugimoto
authors.forename: Takeshi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nakano
authors.forename: Kunio
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Shirato
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D004190:Disasters; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D008297:Male; D011655:Pulmonary Embolism / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D012307:Risk Factors; D013997:Time Factors