Suspected Pulmonary Embolism Exclusion with D-dimers in Emergency Departments (SPEED-ED)

Grant ID: EMPJ-270R39-2023-BANKS

Project Summary

Pulmonary embolism (PE) refers to blood clots in the lung. They can cause sudden death, collapse, chest pain, shortness of breath yet sometimes they cause no symptoms at all and are discovered incidentally. As they can be severe, they have become regarded as a not-to-miss diagnosis. As they can present with a variety of symptoms, emergency clinicians consider the possibility of PE on a frequent basis.

When considering whether a patient has a PE, the clinician may confirm or exclude the diagnosis directly with definitive chest scans. However, these scans are time consuming, costly and have other side effects including exposure to radiation and to chemical contrast agents. When patients are assessed to be less likely of having a PE, it is often possible to safely exclude PE by applying a set of clinical decision rules or doing a blood test called a D-dimer. If the level of D-dimer is below a certain threshold, then PE can be excluded.

We aim to safely exclude PE without scans where possible. Evidence has been building that employing a higher D-dimer threshold is reasonable, yet uptake of this newer approach is limited. We hope to demonstrate that a higher threshold can work in Australia without compromising safety. This will be a large study that answers this question and if shown to be the case, then patient care can be improved while using less resources in busy emergency departments.


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Amount Awarded
$169,095


Program


Grant Scheme


Status
Active


Principal Investigator:
A/Prof Colin Banks


Co Investigators:
Dr Vinay Gangathimmaiah
A/Prof Jeremy Furyk
Prof Gerben Keijzers
Dr Philip Jones
A/Prof Kevin Chu
Dr Sean Lawrence
Dr Georgia Livesay
Dr Theophilus Emeto


Associate Investigators:
Prof Joshua Byrnes
Dr John Casey
Dr Rob Eley
Dr Nathan Brown
Dr Cara Frain


Institution


Collaborating Institutions


CONTACT US +61 7 3112 8668 info@emfoundation.org.au Suite 1A 34 Sherwood Road Toowong, Qld 4066