Acute Pulmonary Embolism: Evidence, Innovation, and Horizons

Pulmonary embolism (PE) is the third most common cause of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. The goal of this review is to discuss the most up-to-date literature on epidemiology, diagnosis, risk stratification, and management of acute PE.

Despite an increase in annual incidence rate of PE in the United States and development of multiple advanced therapies for treatment of acute PE, PE-related mortality is not consistently decreasing across populations. Although multiple risk stratification schemes have been developed, it is still unclear which advanced therapy should be used for the individual patient and optimal timing. Fortunately, multiple randomized clinical trials are underway to answer these questions. Nevertheless, up to 50% of patients have persistent reduced quality of life 6 months after acute PE, termed post-PE syndrome.

Despite advances in therapeutic options for management of acute PE, many questions remain unanswered, including optimal risk stratification and management of acute PE.