UCLA Research Brief
FINDINGS
Patients with dementia who had signs and risk factors of a pulmonary embolism, or a blood clot in the lungs, were much less likely to be tested for pulmonary embolism than patients without dementia who had the same signs and risk factors. For example, physicians at baseline were about 1 percentage point less likely to test patients with dementia for pulmonary embolism than patients without dementia, and physicians were an additional 2.6 percentage points less likely to test patients with dementia who had an elevated heart rate—a possible sign of a pulmonary embolism—than to test those without dementia who had an elevated heart rate.
BACKGROUND
The researchers sought to determine if the presence of dementia makes a difference in how physicians evaluate patients with shortness of breath for their risk of a potentially fatal pulmonary embolism….
