Effect of atmospheric pressure changes on the development of pulmonary embolism a retrospective analysis of 8 years of data

BACKGROUND: Pulmonary embolism (PE) is a condition with high mortality, and determining its etiology is as important as its treatment. There are limited studies in the literature examining the effect of atmo-spheric pressure (AP) change on PE.OBJECTIVES: Analyze the effect of AP level and the change in AP level on the development of PE according to year, season and months.DESIGN: RetrospectiveSETTING: Department of tertiary care centerPATIENTS AND METHODS: Patients with diagnosed or presumed PE who were followed up in the Erzurum Ataturk University Medicine Chest Diseases Clinic between 2012 and 2020 (8 years) were retrospec-tively screened for inclusion in the study by examining hospital records. Daily AP values were obtained electronically through official correspon-dence with the Erzurum Regional Meteorological Directorate. Patients diagnosed with PE were recorded using the hospital database and an-amnesis forms. The dates of admission to hospital were recorded. Risk factors leading to the development of PE were identified using the records.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Relationship between AP values and the incidence of PE.SAMPLE SIZE: 592RESULTS: APmin, APmax, and APmean were significantly lower on days with PE cases compared to days without PE cases (P<.001 for all). & UDelta;APmin, & UDelta;APmax, and & UDelta;APmean values were all negative on days with PE, but only the difference in & UDelta;APmin was significant (P=.04).CONCLUSIONS: This study showed that lower AP values were signifi-cantly associated with the incidence of PE. In particular, a drop in APmin compared to the previous day seemed to be most associated with PE development.LIMITATIONS: Retrospective design and only applicable to region. CONFLICT OF INTEREST: None.