Combination of D-dimer and simplified pulmonary embolism severity index to improve prediction of hospital death in patients with acute pulmonary embolism

OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether the combination of D-dimer and simplified pulmonary embolism severity index (sPESI) could improve prediction of in-hospital death from pulmonary embolism (PE). METHODS: Patients with PE (n = 272) were divided into a surviving group (n = 249) and an in-hospital death group (n = 23). RESULTS: Compared with surviving patients, patients who died in hospital had significantly higher rates of hypotension and tachycardia, reduced SaO(2) levels, elevated D-dimer and troponin T levels, higher sPESI scores, and were more likely to be classified as high risk. Elevated D-dimer levels and high sPESI scores were significantly associated with in-hospital death. Using thresholds for D-dimer and sPESI of 3.175 ng/mL and 1.5, respectively, the specificity for prediction of in-hospital death was 0.357 and 0.414, respectively, and the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) was 0.665 and 0.668, respectively. When D-dimer and sPESI were considered together, the specificity for prediction of in-hospital death increased to 0.838 and the AUC increased to 0.74. CONCLUSIONS: D-dimer and sPESI were associated with in-hospital death from PE. Considering D-dimer levels together with sPESI can significantly improve the specificity of predicting in-hospital death for patients with PE.