title: The association of blood urea nitrogen levels with mortality in acute pulmonary embolism.
abstract: The aim of this study was to investigate the association of BUN levels with in-hospital and long-term adverse clinical outcomes in acute pulmonary embolism (APE) patients treated with tissue-plasminogen activator (t-PA).
  
  
  
  This retrospective study included 252 consecutive confirmed APE patients treated with t-PA. An admission BUN of 34.5 mg/dL was identified through an ROC analysis as an optimal cutoff value to predict the in-hospital mortality with 85% sensitivity and 91% specificity (AUC: 0.91; 95% CI: 0.84-0.96; P<.001).
  
  
  
  Our study showed that an increase in BUN levels was independently associated with a high risk of in-hospital all-cause mortality, low admission systolic blood pressure, use of inotropic drugs, and cardiogenic shock. In-hospital mortality rates were 51.1% in higher BUN group, and 1.9% in lower BUN group (P<.001).
  
  
  
  In this study, elevated admission BUN level was found to be a predictor of all-cause in-hospital mortality. BUN testing is commonly part of the basic metabolic panel; and it can be used to detect high-risk patients with APE, and it bears little risk, is inexpensive, and easy to perform.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiovascular Science, Texas A&M Institute for Preclinical Science, College Station, TX, 77843, USA. Electronic address: ademtatlisu@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Mustafa A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Tatlisu
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, Suruc State Hospital, Urfa, 63800, Turkey.
authors.forename: Adnan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kaya
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, Dr. Siyami Ersek Cardiovascular Surgery Research and Training Hospital, Istanbul, 34773, Turkey.
authors.forename: Muhammed
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Keskin
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, Dr. Siyami Ersek Cardiovascular Surgery Research and Training Hospital, Istanbul, 34773, Turkey.
authors.forename: Sahin
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Avsar
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, Dr. Siyami Ersek Cardiovascular Surgery Research and Training Hospital, Istanbul, 34773, Turkey.
authors.forename: Mehmet
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bozbay
authors.affiliation: Department of Family Medicine, Yenidogan Public Health Center, Istanbul, 34791, Turkey.
authors.forename: Kiymet
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tatlisu
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, Dr. Siyami Ersek Cardiovascular Surgery Research and Training Hospital, Istanbul, 34773, Turkey.
authors.forename: Mehmet
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Eren
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood*; D001806:Blood Urea Nitrogen; D004452:Echocardiography; D005260:Female; D017052:Hospital Mortality; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011655:Pulmonary Embolism / Q000097:blood* / Q000401:mortality; D012372:ROC Curve; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D010959:Tissue Plasminogen Activator / Q000097:blood*; D016896:Treatment Outcome
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; C067262:PLAT protein, human; D010959:Tissue Plasminogen Activator
keywords: Acute pulmonary embolism; Blood urine nitrogen; Mortality; Thrombolytic therapy