• María Lourdes Posadas-Martínez, Fernando Javier Vázquez, Diego Hernán Giunta, Gabriel Darío Waisman, Fernán González Bernaldo de Quirós, and Esteban Gándara.
• Internal Medicine Research Unit, Internal Medicine Department, Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Electronic address: maria.posadas@hospitalitaliano.org.ar.
• Thromb. Res. 2014 Feb 1;133(2):177-81.

IntroductionThe role of the Wells score for patients who develop signs and symptoms of pulmonary embolism (PE) during hospitalization has not been sufficiently validated. The aim of this study is to evaluate the performance of the Wells score for inpatients with suspected PE and to evaluate the prevalence of pulmonary embolism.Materials And MethodsWe conducted a cross sectional study nested in the prospective Institutional Registry of Thromboembolic Disease at Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires from June 2006 to March 2011. We included patients who developed symptoms of pulmonary embolism during hospitalization. Patients were stratified based on the Wells score as PE likely (>4 points) or PE unlikely (≤4 points). The presence of pulmonary embolism was defined by pre-specified criteria.ResultsSix hundred and thirteen patients met the inclusion criteria, with an overall prevalence of PE of 36%. Two hundred and nineteen (34%) were classified as PE likely and 394 (66%) as PE unlikely with a prevalence of PE of 66% and 20%, respectively. The Wells score showed a sensitivity of 65 (95% CI 59-72), specificity 81 (95% CI 77-85), positive predictive value 66 (95% CI 60-72) and negative predictive value 80 (95% CI 77-84).ConclusionsThe Wells Score is accurate to predict the probability of PE in hospitalized patients and this population had a higher prevalence of PE than other cohorts. However, the score is not sufficiently predictive to rule out a potentially fatal disorder.Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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