Welcome to Issue 20 of PERTinent Updates, featuring a select group of articles for your review. We aim to inform and update our members with the most recent major developments in the fields of PERT/VTE so that we in the PERT ConsortiumTM can continue to be at the leading edge of improving care for this vulnerable and overlooked group of patients.

Issue Highlight:
From Our Own

• Ultrasound-assisted versus conventional catheter-directed thrombolysis for acute pulmonary embolism: A multicenter comparison of patient-centered outcomes
• The implementation of a pulmonary embolism response team in the management of intermediate- or high-risk pulmonary embolism
• Endovascular therapy for acute severe pulmonary embolism
• Catheter-directed thrombolysis versus suction thrombectomy in the management of acute pulmonary embolism
• Keep it simple? Half-dose systemic thrombolysis or catheter-directed thrombolysis for pulmonary embolism

Diagnostic Testing

Overdiagnosis of pulmonary embolism: definition, causes and implications.

Dobler CC.
Breathe (Sheff). 2019 Mar;15(1):46-53. doi: 10.1183/20734735.0339-2018. Review.
PMID: 30838059

Risk Stratification

Prediction and prognostic importance of in-hospital major bleeding in a real-world cohort of patients with pulmonary embolism
Kresoja KP, Ebner M, Rogge NIJ, Sentler C, Keller K, Hobohm L, Hasenfuß G, Konstantinides SV, Pieske B, Lankeit M. Int J Cardiol. 2019 Mar 16. pii: S0167-5273(18)34801-0. doi: 10.1016/j.ijcard.2019.03.017. [Epub ahead of print]
PMID: 30917899

Thromboelastography Predicts Thromboembolism in Critically Ill Coagulopathic Patients
Harahsheh Y, Duff OC, Ho KM. Crit Care Med. 2019 Mar 27. doi: 10.1097/CCM.0000000000003730. [Epub ahead of print]
PMID: 30920409

CDT

Ultrasound-accelerated thrombolysis (USAT) versus standard catheter-directed thrombolysis(CDT) for treatment of pulmonary embolism: A retrospective analysis
Rothschild DP, Goldstein JA, Ciacci J, Bowers TR.
Vasc Med. 2019 Mar 27:1358863X19838350. doi: 10.1177/1358863X19838350. [Epub ahead of print]
PMID: 30915912

Retrospective comparison of ultrasound facilitated catheter-directed thrombolysis and systemically administered half-dose thrombolysis in treatment of pulmonary embolism
Sharifi M, Awdisho A, Schroeder B, Jiménez J, Iyer P, Bay C.
Vasc Med. 2019 Apr;24(2):103-109. doi: 10.1177/1358863X18824159. Epub 2019 Mar 5.
PMID: 30834822

Catheter-directed aspiration thrombectomy and low-dose thrombolysis for patients with acute unstable pulmonary embolism: Prospective outcomes from a PE registry
De Gregorio MA, Guirola JA, Kuo WT, Serrano C, Urbano J, Figueredo AL, Sierre S, Quezada CA, Barbero E, Jiménez D. Int J Cardiol. 2019 Feb 28. pii: S0167-5273(18)36761-5. doi: 10.1016/j.ijcard.2019.02.061. [Epub ahead of print] PMID: 3084625

From Our Own…

Ultrasound-assisted versus conventional catheter-directed thrombolysis for acute pulmonary embolism: A multicenter comparison of patient-centered outcomes
Rao G, Xu H, Wang JJ, Galmer A, Giri J, Jaff MR, Kholluri R, Lau JF, Selim S, Weinberg I, Weinberg MD.
Vasc Med. 2019 Mar 27:1358863X19838334. doi: 10.1177/1358863X19838334. [Epub ahead of print]
PMID: 30915914

The implementation of a pulmonary embolism response team in the management of intermediate- or high-risk pulmonary embolis
Xenos ES, Davis GA, He Q, Green A, Smyth SS.
J Vasc Surg Venous Lymphat Disord. 2019 Mar 29. pii: S2213-333X(19)30145-3. doi: 10.1016/j.jvsv.2018.11.014. [Epub ahead of print]
PMID: 30930079 

Endovascular therapy for acute severe pulmonary embolism
Javed QA, Sista AK.
Int J Cardiovasc Imaging. 2019 Mar 15. doi: 10.1007/s10554-019-01567-z. [Epub ahead of print]
PMID: 30877411

Catheter-directed thrombolysis versus suction thrombectomy in the management of acute pulmonary embolism
Avgerinos ED, Abou Ali A, Toma C, Wu B, Saadeddin Z, McDaniel B, Al-Khoury G, Chaer RA.
J Vasc Surg Venous Lymphat Disord. 2019 Mar 20. pii: S2213-333X(19)30163-5. doi: 10.1016/j.jvsv.2018.10.025. [Epub ahead of print]
PMID: 30902560

Keep it simple? Half-dose systemic thrombolysis or catheter-directed thrombolysis for pulmonary embolism
Halaby R, Giri J.
Vasc Med. 2019 Apr;24(2):110-111. doi: 10.1177/1358863X18824653. Epub 2019 Mar 5. No abstract available.
PMID: 30834823

This issue of PERTinent Updates is

Sponsored by:
The PERT Consortium

Supported by:
Actelion Pharmaceuticals US, Inc.
EKOS, a BTG International Company