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

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 >= 3000 ng/mL (OR 8.2 [95% CI] 1.3-74.2, sensitivity (Se) 0.84, specificity (Sp) 0.78, P = .03), white blood count (WBC) >= 12.0 G/L (29.5 [2.3-1221.2], Se 0.47, Sp 0.92, P = .02), and ferritin >= 480 mu g/L (17.0 [1.7-553.3], Se 0.96, Sp 0.44, P = .03) were independently associated with the PE diagnosis. The presence of the double criterion D-dimer >= 3000 ng/mL and WBC >= 12.0 G/L was greatly associated with PE (OR 21.4 [4.0-397.9], P = .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.