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Short- and Long-term Mortality Risk After Acute Pulmonary Embolism

  • Peripheral Vascular Disease (CJ Cooper and R Gupta, Section Editors)
  • Published:
Current Cardiology Reports Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose of Review

Acute pulmonary embolism is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in the USA and throughout the world. This review will summarize recent developments in short- and long-term mortality risk assessment after an acute pulmonary embolism.

Recent Findings

Recent guidelines have emphasized risk stratification of acute PE patients on the basis of blood pressure, right ventricular size, and biomarker status. Ongoing work is testing various acute treatment strategies for improvement of symptom burden, length of stay, quality of life, and possibly mortality risk reduction. Long-term outcomes among subjects with acute PE are less well studied. Long-term mortality largely correlates with baseline co-morbidity burden, although there may be an association between acute PE severity and long-term outcomes.

Summary

Acute PE risk stratification and treatment, as well as long-term follow-up of patients with acute PE, are rapidly developing areas and many promising innovations are underway.

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Abbreviations

PE:

Pulmonary embolism

DVT:

Deep venous thrombosis

VTE:

Venous thromboembolism

sPESI:

Simplified Pulmonary Embolism Severity Index

SBP:

Systolic blood pressure

HR:

Heart rate

RV:

Right ventricle

LV:

Left ventricle

ICOPER:

International Cooperative Pulmonary Embolism Registry

ECMO:

Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation

BNP:

Brain natriuretic peptide

CTEPH:

Thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension

RVSP:

Right ventricular systolic pressure

TAPSE:

Tricuspid Annular Plane Systolic Excursion

ESC:

European Society of Cardiology

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Author information

Author notes

  1. Dylan D. Fortman and Daniel R. Morgenstern contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medicine, Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, University of Toledo Medical Center, 3000 Arlington Ave, MS# 1118, Toledo, OH, 43614, USA

    Rajesh Gupta

  2. College of Medicine and Life Sciences, University of Toledo, Toledo, OH, 43614, USA

    Dylan D. Fortman, Daniel R. Morgenstern & Christopher J. Cooper

Authors
  1. Rajesh Gupta
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  2. Dylan D. Fortman
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  4. Christopher J. Cooper
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Correspondence to Rajesh Gupta.

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Conflict of Interest

Rajesh Gupta, Dylan D. Fortman, and Daniel R. Morgenstern declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Christopher J. Cooper reports a patent pending.

Human and Animal Rights and Informed Consent

This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

Additional information

This article is part of the Topical Collection on Peripheral Vascular Disease

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Gupta, R., Fortman, D.D., Morgenstern, D.R. et al. Short- and Long-term Mortality Risk After Acute Pulmonary Embolism. Curr Cardiol Rep 20, 135 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11886-018-1084-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11886-018-1084-6

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