Effect of age on the performance of a diagnostic strategy based on clinical probability, spiral computed tomography and venous compression ultrasonography: the ESSEP study.

As the prevalence of PE increases with age, the effect of age on the diagnostic work-up in front of a clinical suspicion of PE deserves exploration. In this retrospective analysis, we used the data from 1041 consecutive suspected PE patients. The patients were divided into three groups according to tertiles of age: under 54 years, 54 to 73 years and above 73 years. The prevalence of PE in patients with respectively low, intermediate and high pretest clinical probability was expressed within each age group. We studied the effect of age on the results observed in three main groups of patients, after performing CT scan and ultrasonography (CUS): (1) patients with inconclusive results; (2) patients with negative findings on both exams and non high pretest clinical probability; (3) patients with positive findings.The prevalence of PE increased significantly with age, in overall, as well as in patients with low or intermediate pretest clinical probability. An analysis according to the three main diagnostic groups showed that: (1) the distribution of inconclusive spiral CT or CUS examinations was not different between age groups; (2) no thromboembolic event occurred in untreated patients with low or intermediate clinical probability aged under 54 years of age, whereas 7 events were diagnosed in patients aged over 73 years (p<0.001); (3) a higher proportion of older patients had a positive result at both spiral CT and CUS examinations. The percentage of positive CT scans in the case of negative or inconclusive CUS results was not different between age groups; conversely, in the case of a negative or inconclusive CT scan, the percentage of positive CUS was higher in older patients. In conclusion, management of elderly suspected PE patients appears to be different from both the work-up and the outcome perspectives.