Purpose:
To determine the prevalence of pulmonary embolism in obese patients according to age, gender and comorbid conditions and explore the relation of obesity to mortality.
Methods:
The number of patients discharged from short-stay hospitals throughout the united states from 1998-2008 with pulmonary embolism who were obese or not obese, and in-hospital all-cause mortality were determined from the nationwide inpatient sample.
Results:
From 1998-2008, 203,500 of 17,979,200 (1.1%) obese patients were diagnosed with pulmonary embolism compared with 2,034,100 of 346,049,800 (0.6%) non-obese patients [relative risk (rr) =2.03]. relative risk for pulmonary embolism was highest among obese patients aged 11-20 years (rr=5.80) and was higher in obese women (rr=2.08) than in obese men (rr=1.74). mortality was 4.3% in obese patients with pulmonary embolism compared with 9.5% in non-obese patients (rr=0.45). obesity had the greatest effect on mortality in older patients and little effect in teenagers and young adults. among stable patients who did not receive thrombolytic therapy, mortality was 3.8% in obese patients and 8.4% in non-obese patients (rr=0.45). among unstable patients, obesity had little effect on mortality.
Conclusions:
The prevalence of pulmonary embolism in hospitalized patients was higher in obese patients than in non-obese patients. mortality in patients with pulmonary embolism was lower in obese patients than in non-obese patients, with the greatest effects in women, older patients and stable patients.