Things We Do for No Reason: Routine Echocardiography in Hemodynamically Stable Patients with Acute Pulmonary Embolism

In evaluating the patient described earlier, echocardiography has no clear prognostic implications. Her admission sPESI score equals zero, predicting a 30-day mortality of 1.1%. Including her lower extremity ultrasound and troponin T results into the eStiMaTe© calculator (www.peprognosis.org) surprisingly predicts an even lower rate of 30-day mortality (0.4%) and low risk of a complicated course (2.4%). Assessing for RVD on echocardiography may increase her risk of unnecessary and potentially injurious interventions.

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Disclosures

The authors have no conflicts of interest relevant to this article.