Diagnosis Of Pulmonary Embolism In Patients With Acute Exacerbations Of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonar

A cross‐sectional study was conducted to evaluate the diagnosis of pulmonary embolism in patients with acute exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Researchers designed a cross‐sectional study including adult patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and suspected pulmonary embolism (PE) in an Institutional Registry of Thromboembolic Disease at a tertiary teaching hospital in the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curves, sensitivity and specificity of the Wells and Geneva scores were calculated applying a positive computed tomography angiography as the gold standard for PE. The sensitivity and specificity for the presence of isolated worsening of dyspnea at presentation, without other cardinal symptoms of acute exacerbation of COPD, were also computed. The study enrolled a total of 168 patients, of which 22% had confirmed PE. For the diagnosis of PE, both Wells and Geneva scores reveal poor diagnostic accuracy in patients with COPD. According to the findings, the presence of isolated worsening of dyspnea on presentation could be easy to distinguish criteria for the initial triage in this population. Future validation of the findings remains warranted.

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