Comparative study of acute pulmonary embolism between the elderly and non-elderly patients
ZHANG Ye1,2, GAO Hongmei2, ZHANG Jianpeng2, LI Zhimin1, CHEN Wenli2, ZOU Fenfang2
1.Department of Emergency, Beijing Mentougou District Hospital, Beijing 102300,China 2.Department of Respiratory Medicine,General Hospital of Chinese People’s Armed Police Force, Beijing 100039,China
Abstract:Objective To analyze the different clinical characteristics of acute pulmonary embolism (APE) between the elderly and non-elderly people.Methods Clinical data on 119 APE patients treated in the General Hospital of Chinese People’s Armed Police Force over the past seven years was analyzed retrospectively. These patients were assigned to two groups: the elder group above 65 (n=53) and the younger group under 65 (n=66).Risk factors,clinical symptoms, auxiliary examination , diagnosis and therapies of the two groups were analyzed and compared.Results ① Patients of the elder group tended to be complicated with hypertension, atrial fibrillation, peptic ulcer and bleeding, accounting for 49.1%, 28.3% and 9.8%, respectively, compared with 25.8%, 25.8% and 0 in the younger group. ②Lower limb swelling pain in the elder group was more common than in the younger group(4%).③ ST-T changes and atrial fibrillation in the elder group (90.5% and 17.0%) were more common than those in the younger group(63.2% and 1.5%) while the incidence of the sinus tachycardia and bundle branch block in the younger group (84.2%) was higher than that in the elder group (52.4%).④ PCO2<35mmHg in the elder group (65.8%)was higher than that in the younger group(40.9%) and PO2<80mmHg in the younger group (95.5%) was higher than that in the elder group (76.3%).⑤ APE was easily misdiagnosed as a cardiovascular disease and the misdiagnosis rate in the elder group (30.1%) was higher than in the younger group (15.1%). ⑥ Anticoagulant therapy was more common in the elder group while anticoagulant therapy combined with intravenous thrombolysis was more popular in the younger group. There was no significant difference in the short-term mortality rate between the two groups during hospitalization.Conclusions The underlying disease, clinical symptoms and therapies for APE are different between the elderly and non-elderly patients. Misdiagnosis is more common in the elderly group than in the younger group, which is why physicians should pay more attention to the elderly with lower limb swelling pain, hypercapnia, ST-T change or atrial fibrillation in order to decrease cases of misdiagnosis of APE.
张晔, 高红梅, 张健鹏, 李志民, 陈文丽, 邹芬芳. 老年和非老年急性肺栓塞患者临床特点比较[J]. 武警医学, 2018, 29(2): 163-167.
ZHANG Ye, GAO Hongmei, ZHANG Jianpeng, LI Zhimin, CHEN Wenli, ZOU Fenfang. Comparative study of acute pulmonary embolism between the elderly and non-elderly patients. Med. J. Chin. Peop. Armed Poli. Forc., 2018, 29(2): 163-167.
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