A66-13 Patient Characteristics and Clinical Outcomes in Across-specialty Post Pulmonary Embolism Clinic

Abstract Background Post pulmonary embolism (PE) syndrome is a common cause of morbidity following PE and comprises of persistent dyspnoea, exercise limitation and impaired quality of life despite adequate treatment. Evidence shows that systematic follow-up of PE improves the identification of post PE complications such as chronic thromboembolic pulmonary disease (CTEPD) (1). On this basis, a cross-specialty Haematology and Respiratory post-PE clinic was established in December 2023 to streamline the follow up of patients following PE and to improve the identification and management of complications. To our knowledge, this is the first of its kind in Ireland. Methods This was a single centre retrospective observational study of patients seen in the Post-PE Clinic between December 2023 and May 2025. Data was collected from the inhouse electronic database (Patient Centre). Patients without a history of PE were excluded from the analysis. Results Forty patients with a history of PE were included in the study, of which 23 (58%) were male. The mean age at the time of clinic review was 54 ± 14 years. At the time of PE diagnosis 2 (5%) patients were stratified as high risk, 14 (35%) as intermediate-high risk, 8 (20%) as intermediate-low risk and 16 (40%) as low risk. The median time between the incident PE and review in the post-PE clinic was 8.5 months. Persistent dyspnoea was observed in 26 (65%) cases, and 28 (70%) patients proceeded with post-PE investigations, including VQ scanning (n = 26, 65%), pulmonary angiography (n = 12, 30%), right heart catheterisation (n = 3, 8%) and cardio-pulmonary exercise testing (n = 2, 5%). Nine (22.5%) patients were diagnosed with CTEPD without pulmonary hypertension (PH), 3 (7.5%) patients with chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH) and 28 (70%) did not have any evidence of pulmonary vascular complications. When stratified by risk status, there was no significant relationship between PE risk status and subsequent pulmonary vascular complications. Conclusion This study describes the baseline characteristics of patients attending the post-PE clinic. Pulmonary vascular complications were common at 30% (n = 12), highlighting the importance of systematic follow of these patients in a dedicated clinic. Furthermore, dyspnoea following PE is common and was observed in 65% (n = 26) of patients. This underscores the heterogeneous nature of post-PE dyspnoea which can have diverse aetiologies including deconditioning, anxiety, CTEPD and co-morbidities. Systematic follow up is important to identify pulmonary vascular complications, but also to provide reassurance to those with persistent symptoms and reassuring investigations following PE. This abstract is funded by: None