Lei M, Liu C, Luo Z, Xu Z, Jiang Y, Lin J, Wang C, Jiang D. Diagnostic management of inpatients with a positive D-dimer test: developing a new clinical decision-making rule for pulmonary embolism.
Pulm Circ 2021;
11:2045894020943378. [PMID:
33456753 PMCID:
PMC7797584 DOI:
10.1177/2045894020943378]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/21/2020] [Accepted: 06/26/2020] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Background
A positive D-dimer test has high sensitivity but relatively poor specificity
for the diagnosis of pulmonary embolism, causing difficulty for clinicians
unskilled in pulmonary embolism diagnosis in determining whether a patient
with a positive D-dimer test needs to undergo computed tomographic pulmonary
angiography.
Objectives
We sought to develop a new clinical decision-making rule based on a positive
D-dimer result to predict the probability of pulmonary embolism and to guide
clinicians in making decisions regarding the need for computed tomographic
pulmonary angiography.
Methods
We conducted a prospective, multicenter study in three hospitals in China. A
total of 3014 inpatients with positive D-dimer results were included. In the
derivation group, we built a multivariate logistic regression model and
deduced a regression equation from which our score was derived. Finally, we
validated the score in an independent cohort.
Results
Our score included nine variables (points): chest pain (1.4), chest tightness
(2.3), shortness of breath (3.6), hemoptysis (3.4), heart rate ≥100
beats/min (3.6), blood gas analysis (2.9), electrocardiogram presenting a
typical S1Q3T3 pattern (4.1), electrocardiogram findings (2.4), and
ultrasonic cardiogram findings (3.7). The sensitivities and specificities
were 100% and 86.94%, respectively, in the derivation group and 100% and
90.82%, respectively, in the validation group. Additionally, the observed
and predicted proportions of patients who underwent computed tomographic
pulmonary angiography were 16.82% and 10.76%, respectively, in the
derivation group and 18.72% and 11.40%, respectively, in the validation
group.
Conclusions
The new score can categorize inpatients with a positive D-dimer test as
pulmonary embolism-likely or pulmonary embolism-unlikely, thus reducing
unnecessary computed tomographic pulmonary angiography examinations.
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