Investigation of the clinical features and risk factors in elderly patients with acute pulmonary thromboembolism / 中华老年医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the differences in clinical symptoms and risk factors between non-elderly and elderly patients with acute pulmonary thromboembolism(PTE).Methods Totally141 patients with acute PTE and 100 sex and age-matched healthy controls were enrolled in the study.The final diagnosis was confirmed by CT pulmonary angiography (CTPA) and/or pulmonary angiography and/or pulmonary perfusion imaging as well as medical history.The patients with acute PTE were divided into two groups according ageelderly group (n=78,age≥60 years),young group (n =63,age ＜ 60 years).Multivariate Logistic regression analysis was performed to identify independent risk factors of PTE and to confirm the risk of each factor.Results The morbidity rate of dyspnea,cough,chest distress and chest pain were 88.5％ (69 cases),76.9％ (60 cases),56.4％ (44 cases),15.4％ (12 cases) in elderly group,which was similar to 84.1％ (53 cases),69.8％ (44 cases),63.5％ (40 cases),25.4％ (16 cases) in young group (all P＞0.05)； while the morbidity rate of hemoptysis in elderly group [9.0％ (7 cases)] was lower than in young group [23.8％(15 cases)](P＜0.05).9％ (7 cases) in elderly patients without any symptoms were more than 1.6％ (1 cases) in young patients,but no significant differene (P＞0.05).There were more risk factors in the elderly group accompanying with diabetes (x2 =7.41,P ＜ 0.01),hypertension (x2 =14.51,P＜ 0.01),chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (COPD) (x2 =7.42,P＜0.01) and previous stroke (x2 =4.91,P＜0.05)compared with young group.Independent risk factors for elderly acute PTE included COPD (OR3.29,95％CI1.04-10.46),previous deep veneus thrombosis(DVT) (OR4.72,95％CI1.68-13.27),cancers (OR4.35,95％CI1.00-18.13) and previous stroke (OR5.13,95％CI1.15-24.52).Independent risk factors for non-elderly PTE included previous DVT (OR11.94,95％ CI3.35-42.60)and cancers (OR11.44,95％CI1.44-89.92).Conclusions Much attention should be paid to the identification of diagnosis of acute PTE depending on the non-specific clinical features,although dyspnea may be the most frequency symptoms,but unexplained cough and chest distress should be alert for PTE.COPD,cancer,DVT and previous stroke are independent and important risk factors for elderly acute PTE.