Clinical phenotypes and risk of early hemodynamic deterioration in intermediate-high-risk patients with acute pulmonary embolism.

Background: Intermediate-high-risk pulmonary embolism (PE) patients face elevated risks of sudden clinical deterioration in early hours after symptoms onset. We performed a hierarchical cluster analysis among intermediate-high risk PE patients to identify phenotypic subgroups and assess their association with hemodynamic deterioration risk within 48 h of admission.

Methods: A post hoc analysis of patients with intermediate-high risk PE enrolled in the Italian Pulmonary Embolism Registry (ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT01604538) was performed. Hierarchical clustering (Ward's linkage) and principal component analysis identified phenotypic clusters among a population of intermediate-high-risk PE.

Results: The study involved 420 patients with intermediate-high risk PE (mean age 72.4 ± 13.8 years, 63.8 % males). Three distinct phenotypic clusters were identified: Cluster 1, characterized by patients with systolic blood pressure between 90 and 110 mmHg, acute onset dyspnea, and right ventricular strain at ECG; Cluster 2, featuring males <65 years with pleuritic chest pain; and Cluster 3, females ≥65 years with chest pain. The rates of 48-h hemodynamic deterioration were 14.6 % in Cluster 1, 7.5 % in Cluster 2, and 4.5 % in Cluster 3. Multivariate analysis showed Cluster 1 had a significantly higher risk of deterioration compared to Clusters 2 (HR: 1.42, 95 % CI: 1.38-1.46, p < 0.001) and 3 (HR: 1.51, 95 % CI: 1.15-1.62, p = 0.01), adjusting for age, sex, and treatment.

Conclusions: Cluster analysis identified 3-statistically-identified phenotypic clusters among patients with intermediate high-risk PE with different risk of hemodynamic deterioration within 48 h from admission. Further phenotyping is warranted to inform patient care and optimize clinical trial designs.