Zeitschrift für Adipositas- und Gewichtsverlusttherapie

Abstrakt

Overweight and Obesity does not Increase Severity of Pulmonary Embolism

Nongnooch Poowanawittayakom and Clifton Clarke

Obesity defined as body mass index (BMI) ≥30 kg/m2 has been shown to be a risk factor and a prognosticator in many populations. Whether obesity is specifically a prognosticator for pulmonary embolism is not well known. In the present study, 194 patients with BMI between 14 and 88 kg/m2 (44% males mean age 59 ± 18 years, median BMI 30.3 kg/m2) who were diagnosed with PE were included in this cross-sectional study. The logistic regression analysis showed that being overweight or obese (defined as BMI>25 kg/m2) was an independent variable predicting being in a low-risk group with OR of 2.39 (95% confidence interval 1.10, 5.21) and p value of 0.028. Paradoxically, overweight or obese patients with PE have better prognostic outcomes compared to underweight or normal weight patients defined by the simplified PESI (sPESI) which is commonly used to estimate the risk of 30-day mortality in patients with acute pulmonary embolism (PE) in our study.