Gender, age and clinical signs in patients suspected of pulmonary embolism.

We studied 196 patients with suspicion of pulmonary embolism (PE) to evaluate the role of clinical pattern, with special reference to gender and age, in raising the suspicion. Results are that clinical and instrumental patterns, although not specific for PE, may show highly frequent symptoms and signs such as dyspnea (52%), chest pain (60%), enlargement of descending pulmonary artery (49%), diaphragmatic elevation (41%), enlargement of azygos vein (46%) and hypoxia (mean value 68 +/- 13 mm Hg) that allow to suspect PE in most patients and, therefore, to recruit more patients for diagnosis. Moreover, this study shows that gender and age may only partially influence the possibility of raising the suspicion of PE. Indeed, only hemoptysis is significantly (p < 0.02) more frequent in males; only pleuritic chest pain is significantly (p < 0.02) more frequent in youngs; few instrumental findings, such as 'sausage-like' descending pulmonary artery (p < 0.001), enlargement of cardiac shadow (p < 0.01), and hypoxia (p > 0.03) are significantly more frequent in elderly patients. Finally, a characteristic clinical and instrumental pattern of PE may allow to select a subset of patients at higher risk; in fact, previous PE, prolonged immobilization (p < 0.01) and thrombophlebitis (p < 0.001), sudden dyspnea and cough (p < 0.05), 'sausage-like' descending pulmonary artery (p < 0.001), diaphragm elevation (p < 0.02), enlargement of heart shadow, pulmonary infarction and Westermark sign (p < 0.001), S-T segment depression (p < 0.001), and hypoxia (p < 0.001) are findings significantly more frequent in patients with confirmed PE.