Post-acute pre-discharge echocardiography in the long-term prognostic assessment of pulmonary thrombembolism.

The aim of our study was to asses the long-term prognostic impact of post-acute, pre-discharge echocardiographic assessment of right ventricular (RV) dysfunction in patients with low- and intermediate-risk pulmonary embolism (PE). Consecutive patients with acute PE underwent post-acute, pre-discharge echocardiographic assessment of RV dysfunction (defined by: RV dilation, tricuspid anulus peak systolic excursion, or tricuspid regurgitation systolic velocity). A Cox multivariate survival mode was constructed to determine the prognostic impact of post-acute, pred-discharge RV dysfunction on all-cause mortality.