Pulmonary Embolism in Medical Patients: An Autopsy-Based Study

Abstract

Pulmonary embolism, though treatable, is a devastating disease and an important cause of morbidity and mortality among hospitalized patients. In all, 1000 autopsies were reviewed in adult medical patients. The overall incidence of pulmonary embolism in adult medical autopsies was 15.9% (159/1000). The incidence of pulmonary embolism contributing significantly to the death of the patients (groups 1 and 2) is 126/1000 (12.6%). Thus, pulmonary embolism very significantly contributed to death in 126/159 (79.24%) of group 1 and 2 patients. Pulmonary embolism affected a younger population as 79.87% of the overall patients, 66.67% of the fatal cases (group 1) and 73% of combined group 1 and 2 cases were below the age of 50 years. Sepsis was the primary diagnosis in 32% of total and in 42% of fatal cases. Hence, pulmonary embolism is considered as an important cause of death in patients admitted to the medical wards. It affects a younger population in India and needs to be tackled appropriately.

Treating pulmonary embolism in Pacific Asia with direct oral anticoagulants

“…Underdiagnosis of PE due to comparatively lower autopsy rates in Asian countries for practical, cultural and religious reasons, also contributes to relatively lesser ascertainment that belies its true prevalence [21]; indeed data from Hong Kong, India, Japan and Singapore suggest a similar incidence of autopsydetected PE to that in Caucasians [7,[23][24][25][26].…”

Real-life use of thromboprophylaxis in patients hospitalized for pulmonary disorders: A single-center retrospective study

“…[1][2][3] Importantly, 10% of in-hospital deaths are related to VTE. [4][5][6] It has been estimated that 42% of hospitalized patients are at an intermediate or high risk for VTE. 1 An increased risk of VTE is also observed during the 30-day post-discharge period.…”

Asymptomatic calf vein DVT in high risk surgical patients: a single centre study

“…Each year 1.6 per 1,000, people in industrial countries develop DVT [1]. About 1%-2% of these patients die of pulmonary embolism (PE) [2] and near about 25% of these patients will suffer from effects of chronic thrombotic syndrome by 20 yrs of development of DVT. It has been estimated that approximately 1 of 20 hospitalized medical patients will suffer a fatal PE if they have not received appropriate thrombosis prophylaxis [2].…”

“…About 1%-2% of these patients die of pulmonary embolism (PE) [2] and near about 25% of these patients will suffer from effects of chronic thrombotic syndrome by 20 yrs of development of DVT. It has been estimated that approximately 1 of 20 hospitalized medical patients will suffer a fatal PE if they have not received appropriate thrombosis prophylaxis [2]. VTE prophylaxis has generally been recommended for 7 to 10 *Coresponding Author: Madhusudan Dey, Department of Obst & Gyn, AFMC, Pune, India E-mail: deym1@yahoo.com days as the risk of VTE is highest within 2 weeks of surgery and remains elevated for 2 to 3 months post-surgery [2,3].…”