ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Cardiovasc. Med.
Sec. Thrombosis and Haemostasis
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fcvm.2025.1595705
This article is part of the Research TopicAdvancements in Understanding and Managing Pulmonary Thromboembolism and HypertensionView all articles
Dyspnea after a first episode of pulmonary embolism: prevalence, predictors and long-term associations with health-related quality of life
Provisionally accepted
- 1Epidemiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Augsburg, Augsburg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
- 2Augsburg University Hospital, Augsburg, Bavaria, Germany
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The predictors and consequences of dyspnea after pulmonary embolism (PE) are only rarely investigated. The present study aimed to characterize dyspnea and its associated factors in patients with incident PE up to 2 years after hospital discharge. Methods: Data from the German 'Lungenembolie Augsburg (LEA)' cohort study were used. Baseline characteristics of adult patients with a first episode of acute PE were collected during hospital stay. Participants completed postal questionnaires 3, 6, 12, and 24 months after their PE. Dyspnea was assessed using the Chronic Respiratory Questionnaire (CRQ) and the Pulmonary Embolism Quality of Life Questionnaire (PEmb-QoL) was used to measure health-related quality of life (HRQOL). Linear mixed models were used to determine the variables associated with dyspnea.Results: Out of 503 patients (55% male, mean age 62.8 ± 14.6 years), 45 to 64% of the participants had dyspnea at any time point. No significant change of dyspnea over time was found. Body mass index (estimate -0.04, 95% CI -0.06 to -0.02, p=0.0002), symptoms of depression (estimate -0.11, 95% CI -0.15 to -0.07, p<0.0001), symptoms of anxiety (estimate -0.08, 95% CI -0.11 to -0.04, p<0.001), and FEV1 values (estimate 0.35, 95% CI 0.10 to 0.61, p=0.0060) were significantly associated with the CRQ dyspnea score. Furthermore, dyspnea had significant and strong adverse associations with all subscales of the PEmb-QOL (p<0.0001). Discussion: Dyspnea is a common and persisting complaint after PE. Symptoms of depression and anxiety are strongly related with dyspnea and dyspnea is significantly associated with impaired HRQOL.
Keywords: Pulmonary Embolism, Dyspnea, Quality of Life, Depression, Anxiety
Received: 18 Mar 2025; Accepted: 20 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Kirchberger, Fischer, Berghaus, Linseisen and Meisinger. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Inge Kirchberger, Epidemiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Augsburg, Augsburg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
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