Development and validation of a prediction model to estimate risk of acute pulmonary embolism in deep vein thrombosis patients

Venous thromboembolism (VTE), clinically presenting as deep vein thrombosis (DVT) or pulmonary embolism (PE). Not all DVT patients carry the same risk of developing acute pulmonary embolism (APE). To develop and validate a prediction model to estimate risk of APE in DVT patients combined with past medical history, clinical symptoms, physical signs, and the sign of the electrocardiogram. We analyzed data from a retrospective cohort of patients who were diagnosed as symptomatic VTE from 2013 to 2018 (n = 1582). Among them, 122 patients were excluded. All enrolled patients confirmed by pulmonary angiography or computed tomography pulmonary angiography (CTPA) and compression venous ultrasonography. Using the LASSO and logistics regression, we derived a predictive model with 16 candidate variables to predict the risk of APE and completed internal validation. Overall, 52.9% patients had DVT + APE (773 vs 1460), 47.1% patients only had DVT (687 vs 1460). The APE risk prediction model included one pre-existing disease or condition (respiratory failure), one risk factors (infection), three symptoms (dyspnea, hemoptysis and syncope), five signs (skin cold clammy, tachycardia, diminished respiration, pulmonary rales and accentuation/splitting of P(2)), and six ECG indicators (S(I)Q(III)T(III), right axis deviation, left axis deviation, S(1)S(2)S(3), T wave inversion and Q/q wave), of which all were positively associated with APE. The ROC curves of the model showed AUC of 0.79 (95% CI, 0.77–0.82) and 0.80 (95% CI, 0.76–0.84) in the training set and testing set. The model showed good predictive accuracy (calibration slope, 0.83 and Brier score, 0.18). Based on a retrospective single-center population study, we developed a novel prediction model to identify patients with different risks for APE in DVT patients, which may be useful for quickly estimating the probability of APE before obtaining definitive test results and speeding up emergency management processes.