Predicting mortality of pulmonary thromboembolism in cancer patients with a new scoring system: mPESI

Abstract

Purpose: Although the Pulmonary Embolism Severity Index (PESI) is frequently used, assessing the severity of pulmonary thromboembolism in cancer patients is not sufficient for prognostic evaluation. In this study, we aimed to designate a scoring system to determine the prognosis of newly diagnosed pulmonary thromboembolism in adult cancer patients. Materials and Methods: This prospective, cross-sectional, and descriptive study was held in an emergency department of a university hospital. Patients were classified according to their PESI scores. The echocardiography results, blood gas analyses, lactate, d-dimer, and N-terminus pro-Brain natriuretic peptide levels of the patients were evaluated to prognosticate mortality. Results: Among 53 patients included, 13 mortalities occurred. The mortality was 38.8% (5/23) in PESI Class 3, 7.7% (1/12) in PESI Class 4, and 53.8% (7/10) in PESI Class 5 while none in the 8 patients in PESI Class 2. The mortality in the first 24 hours was 23%, 53.9% in the first month, and 23.1% in 1-3 months. According to the cut-off values determined, a scoring called ‘mPESI’ was developed by giving one point each for d-dimer >24.28 µg/mL, N-terminus pro-Brain natriuretic peptide >1340 pg/mL, blood pH