Features Partner Sites Information LinkXpress hp
Sign In
Advertise with Us
LGC Clinical Diagnostics

Download Mobile App




Pulmonary Embolism Diagnosed by Improved Interpretation of Blood Tests

By LabMedica International staff writers
Posted on 10 Dec 2019
Pulmonary embolism is the sudden blockage of a major blood vessel (artery) in the lung, usually by a blood clot. In most cases, the clots are small and are not deadly, but they can damage the lung and if the clot is large and stops blood flow to the lung, it can be deadly.

D-dimer is a fibrin degradation product (or FDP), a small protein fragment present in the blood after a blood clot is degraded by fibrinolysis. It is so named because it contains two D fragments of the fibrin protein joined by a cross-link. A new way to interpret blood test results in patients who are investigated for blood clots in their lungs, and this new approach applies to D-dimer blood tests, which are used by physicians to rule out the presence of a blood clot.

Scientists working with the Hamilton Health Sciences (Hamilton, ON, Canada) enrolled a total of 2,017 patients aged 18 and older who were evaluated in a study, of which 7% had pulmonary embolism on initial diagnostic testing. The average age of the patients was 52 years, and 66% were female. Of the patients in the study, 1,474 (73%) were enrolled at Hamilton Health Sciences or St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton. These patients, and those at other university-based clinical centers in Canada, were tested from December 2015 through May 2018 and assessed 90 days later.

The team reported that of the 1,325 patients identified by an emergency department physician as having a low (1,285 of the patients) or a moderate (40 patients) probability of having a pulmonary embolism and who had negative D-dimer results (that is, less than 1,000 or 500 ng/mL, respectively), none had venous thromboembolism during follow-up.

Clive Kearon, MB, MRCPI, FRCPC, PhD, a professor of medicine, and a senior author of the study, said, “The primary goal of diagnostic testing for pulmonary embolism is to identify which patients should be treated with anticoagulant agents and which should not. When a physician is concerned that pulmonary embolism may be present, chest imaging with CT pulmonary angiography is usually done in half of these patients. We wanted to find a way to reduce the number of CT scans that need to be done. Our analyses show that pulmonary embolism is ruled out by a D-dimer level of less than 1,000 ng/mL in patients with a low probability, and by a D-dimer level of less than 500 ng/mL in patients with a moderate probability. This way of using D-dimer testing and clinical assessment reduced the need for CT scanning by one-third.” The study was published on the November 28, 2019 in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Related Links:
Hamilton Health Sciences


Gold Member
Chagas Disease Test
CHAGAS Cassette
Verification Panels for Assay Development & QC
Seroconversion Panels
New
Gold Member
Human Chorionic Gonadotropin Test
hCG Quantitative - R012
New
Respiratory Bacterial Panel
Real Respiratory Bacterial Panel 2
Read the full article by registering today, it's FREE! It's Free!
Register now for FREE to LabMedica.com and get access to news and events that shape the world of Clinical Laboratory Medicine.
  • Free digital version edition of LabMedica International sent by email on regular basis
  • Free print version of LabMedica International magazine (available only outside USA and Canada).
  • Free and unlimited access to back issues of LabMedica International in digital format
  • Free LabMedica International Newsletter sent every week containing the latest news
  • Free breaking news sent via email
  • Free access to Events Calendar
  • Free access to LinkXpress new product services
  • REGISTRATION IS FREE AND EASY!
Click here to Register








Channels

Immunology

view channel
Image: The cancer stem cell test can accurately choose more effective treatments (Photo courtesy of University of Cincinnati)

Stem Cell Test Predicts Treatment Outcome for Patients with Platinum-Resistant Ovarian Cancer

Epithelial ovarian cancer frequently responds to chemotherapy initially, but eventually, the tumor develops resistance to the therapy, leading to regrowth. This resistance is partially due to the activation... Read more

Microbiology

view channel
Image: The lab-in-tube assay could improve TB diagnoses in rural or resource-limited areas (Photo courtesy of Kenny Lass/Tulane University)

Handheld Device Delivers Low-Cost TB Results in Less Than One Hour

Tuberculosis (TB) remains the deadliest infectious disease globally, affecting an estimated 10 million people annually. In 2021, about 4.2 million TB cases went undiagnosed or unreported, mainly due to... Read more

Pathology

view channel
Image: The ready-to-use DUB enzyme assay kits accelerate routine DUB activity assays without compromising data quality (Photo courtesy of Adobe Stock)

Sensitive and Specific DUB Enzyme Assay Kits Require Minimal Setup Without Substrate Preparation

Ubiquitination and deubiquitination are two important physiological processes in the ubiquitin-proteasome system, responsible for protein degradation in cells. Deubiquitinating (DUB) enzymes contain around... Read more

Technology

view channel
Image: The HIV-1 self-testing chip will be capable of selectively detecting HIV in whole blood samples (Photo courtesy of Shutterstock)

Disposable Microchip Technology Could Selectively Detect HIV in Whole Blood Samples

As of the end of 2023, approximately 40 million people globally were living with HIV, and around 630,000 individuals died from AIDS-related illnesses that same year. Despite a substantial decline in deaths... Read more

Industry

view channel
Image: The collaboration aims to leverage Oxford Nanopore\'s sequencing platform and Cepheid\'s GeneXpert system to advance the field of sequencing for infectious diseases (Photo courtesy of Cepheid)

Cepheid and Oxford Nanopore Technologies Partner on Advancing Automated Sequencing-Based Solutions

Cepheid (Sunnyvale, CA, USA), a leading molecular diagnostics company, and Oxford Nanopore Technologies (Oxford, UK), the company behind a new generation of sequencing-based molecular analysis technologies,... Read more
Copyright © 2000-2025 Globetech Media. All rights reserved.