Publication Date:
2006-11-16
Description:
Pulmonary embolism (PE) is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in patients with cancer (CA). However, predicting which CA patients will develop PE is not possible and thromboprophylaxis is infrequently used. In order to define the incidence and clinical characteristics of CA patients with PE, we analyzed discharge data from all patients with PE collected by the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council (PHC4) from 1997–2001. The analyses included all PE discharges with ICD-9 codes 415.11 and 415.19, excluding pregnant patients and all second or later PE admissions. Cancer diagnoses were enumerated by ICD-9 codes 140–239 and diagnostic procedures by revenue codes for computerized tomographic (CT) (including spiral CT) scans. Of 33,036 PE patients identified in this period, one-quarter had cancer, among whom PE incidence increased marginally, from 1,589 (24.0%) in 1997 to 2,262 (25.4%) in 2001, p = 0.072. CA patients were more likely to be Caucasian, OR 1.22, p
Print ISSN:
0006-4971
Electronic ISSN:
1528-0020
Topics:
Biology
,
Medicine
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