Definition of tachycardia for risk stratification of pulmonary embolism

Tachycardia is a reliable predictor of adverse outcomes in normotensive patients with acute pulmonary embolism (PE). However, different prognostic relevant heart rate thresholds have been proposed. The aim of the study was to investigate the prognostic performance of different thresholds used for defining tachycardia in normotensive PE patients.We performed a post-hoc analysis of normotensive patients with confirmed PE consecutively included in a single-centre and a multi-centre registry. An adverse outcome was defined as PE-related death, need for mechanical ventilation, cardiopulmonary resuscitation or administration of catecholamines.Of 1567 patients (median age: 72 [IQR, 59-79] years; f…