2017 Volume 29 Issue 1 Pages 79-86
Previous studies have reported elevated serum soluble thrombomodulin (sTM) concentrations in acute pulmonary thromboembolism (APTE), but no study has evaluated the relationship between the serum sTM concentration and prognosis. In the present study we investigated the correlation between the serum sTM concentration on admission and the duration of oxygen supplementation in patients admitted to the coronary care unit (CCU) for APTE to evaluate whether serum sTM is a useful predictor of treatment response. The study included 38 consecutive patients [14 men, 24 women; mean (±SD) age 59.9±16.8 years] admitted to the CCU between March 2012 and July 2014 with a diagnosis of APTE confirmed by contrast-enhanced computed tomography within 7 days of onset. The severity of pulmonary embolism was classified as collapse and cardiac arrest type in three patients (8%), massive type in two (5%), submassive type in 19 (50%), and non-massive type in 14 (38%). Significant positive correlations were found for both age and creatinine clearance with duration of hospitalization, but not with duration of oxygen supplementation. There was a significant positive correlation between admission sTM concentrations and both days of hospitalization (R=0.57, P<0.005) and duration of oxygen supplementation (R=0.56, P<0.01). The findings of the present study suggest that serum sTM concentrations are promising predictors of treatment response and short-term prognosis in patients with APTE.
