Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
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The use of a computed tomography pulmonary angiogram to diagnose pulmonary embolism (PE) has increased, leading not only to higher PE diagnoses but also to overdiagnosis and unnecessary radiation exposure, even in young patients despite a lower PE incidence. The aim of this study was to assess the failure rate of the pulmonary embolism rule-out criteria 35 (PERC-35) rule developed to reduce unnecessary testing in individuals aged ≤35 years among patients included in the Registro Informatizado de la Enfermedad TromboEmbolica Venosa (RIETE) Registry. ⋯ The PERC-35 rule demonstrated a low failure rate to exclude PE in patients aged 18-35 years and could reduce imaging and radiation exposure in young patients with a low PE pretest probability if confirmed prospectively.