Document Type
Journal Article
Publication Title
Internal Medicine Journal
Volume
54
Issue
8
First Page
1283
Last Page
1291
PubMed ID
38497689
Publisher
Wiley
School
School of Medical and Health Sciences
RAS ID
69899
Abstract
Background: High/intermediate-risk pulmonary embolism (PE) confers increased risk of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. International guidelines recommend the formation of a PE response team (PERT) for PE management because of the complexity of risk stratification and emerging treatment options. However, there are currently no available Australian data regarding outcomes of PE managed through a PERT. Aims: To analyse the clinical and outcome data of patients from an Australian centre with high/intermediate-risk PE requiring PERT-guided management. Methods: We performed a retrospective observational study of 75 consecutive patients with high/intermediate-risk PE who had PERT involvement, between August 2018 and July 2021. We recorded clinical and interventional data at the time of PERT and assessed patient outcomes up to 30 days from PERT initiation. We used unpaired t tests to compare right to left ventricular (RV/LV) ratios by computed tomography criteria or transthoracic echocardiogram (TTE) at baseline and after interventions. Results: Data were available for 74 patients. Initial computed tomography pulmonary angiography RV/LV ratio was increased at 1.65 ± 0.5 and decreased to 1.30 ± 0.29 following PERT-guided interventions (P < 0.001). TTE RV/LV ratio also decreased following PERT-guided management (1.09 ± 0.19 vs 0.93 ± 0.17; P < 0.001). 20% of patients had any bleeding complication, but two-thirds were mild, not requiring intervention. All-cause mortality was 6.8%, and all occurred within the first 7 days of admission. Conclusion: The PERT model is feasible in a large Australian centre in managing complex and time-critical PE. Our data demonstrate outcomes comparable with existing published international PERT data. However, successful implementation at other Australian institutions may require adequate centre-specific resource availability and the presence of multispeciality input.
DOI
10.1111/imj.16363
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Comments
Roy, B., Cho, J. G., Baker, L., Thomas, L., Curnow, J., Harvey, J. J., ... & Westmead Hospital Pulmonary Embolism Response Team. (2024). Pulmonary embolism response teams. A description of the first 36‐month Australian experience. Internal Medicine Journal, 54(8), 1283-1291. https://doi.org/10.1111/imj.16363