Pulmonary Embolism Severity Index (PESI) is a calculator for determining how severe a Pulmonary Embolism is using 11 patient parameters and is able to stratify the risk into 5 groups.
Pulmonary embolism is a condition in which an embolus (usually because of deep vein thrombosis) migrates into the vessels of the lungs blocking normal blood flow. This will produce multiple signs and symptoms that vary with each individual patient such as:
- pleuritic chest pain
- breathlessness
- haemoptysis (coughing blood)
- tachypnoea (fast breathing)
- tachycardia (fast heartbeat)
Sometimes there may be no clinical signs or symptoms depending on the size of the embolus or the cardiopulmonary reserve of the patient.
DISCLAIMER! This script is for educational purposes only in order to help correlate theoretical knowledge and it does not substitute clinical understanding of each patient's history and factors that influence their wellbeing. For any health related issues it is always important to contact the right healthcare professionals.
Bibliography: Kumar PJ, Clark ML. Kumar & Clark’s Clinical Medicine. 10th ed. Elsevier; 2021.