Quality of life after pulmonary embolism as assessed with SF-36 and PEmb-QoL

Introduction: Although quality of life (QoL) is recognized as an important indicator of the course of a disease, it has rarely been addressed in studies evaluating the outcome of care for patients with pulmonary embolism (PE). This study primarily aimed to evaluate the QoL of patients with acute PE in comparison to population norms and to patients with other cardiopulmonary diseases, using a generic QoL questionnaire. Secondary, the impact of time period from diagnosis and clinical patient characteristics on QoL was assessed, using a disease-specific questionnaire. Methods: QoL was assessed in 109 consecutive out-patients with a history of objectively confirmed acute PE (mean age 60.4 +/- 15.0 years, 56 females), using the generic Short Form-36 (SF-36) and the disease specific Pulmonary Embolism Quality of Life questionnaire (PEmb-QoL). The score of the SF-36 were compared with scores of the general Dutch population and reference populations with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), congestive heart failure (CHF), a history of acute myocardial infarction (AMI), derived from the literature. Scores on the SF-35 and PEmb-QoL were used to evaluate QoL in the short-term and long-term clinical course of patients with acute PE. In addition, we examined correlations between PEmb-QoL scores and clinical patient characteristics. Results: Compared to scores of the general Dutch population, scores of PE patients were worse on several sub-scales of the SF-36 (social functioning, role emotional, general health (P <0.001), role physical and vitality (P <0.05)). Compared to patients with COPD and CHF, patients with PE scored higher (= better) on all sub-scales of the SF-36 (P