White Blood Count, D-dimers and Ferritin levels as Predictive Factors of Pulmonary Embolism suspected upon admission in noncritically ill COVID-19 patients: the French multicenter CLOTVID retrospective study

Abstract Background A high prevalence of pulmonary embolism (PE) has been described during COVID-19 Our aim was to identify predictive factors of PE in non-ICU hospitalized COVID-19 patients Methods Data and outcomes were collected upon admission during a French multicenter retrospective study, including patients hospitalized for COVID-19, with a CT pulmonary angiography (CTPA) performed in the emergency department for suspected PE Predictive factors significantly associated with PE were identified through a multivariate regression model Results A total of 88 patients (median [IQR] age of 68 years [60-78]) were analyzed Based on CTPA, 47 (53 4%) patients were diagnosed with PE, and 41 were not D-dimer ≥3,000 ng/mL (OR 8 2 [95%CI] 1 3-74 2, sensitivity (Se) 0 84, specificity (Sp) 0 78, p=0 03), white blood count (WBC) ≥12 0 G/L (29 5 [2 3-1221 2], Se 0 47, Sp 0 92, p=0 02) and ferritin ≥480 µg/L (17 0 [1 7-553 3], Se 0 96, Sp 0 44, p=0 03) were independently associated with the PE diagnosis The presence of the double criterion D-dimer ≥3,000 ng/mL and WBC ≥12 0 G/L was greatly associated with PE (OR 21 4 [4 0-397 9], p=0 004) Conclusion The white blood count, the D-dimer and ferritin levels could be used as an indication for CTPA to confirm PE on admission in non-ICU COVID-19 patients