Prognostic Value of Heart-type Fatty Acid-Binding Protein (h-FABP) in Acute Pulmonary Embolism

The patients presenting with acute pulmonary embolism and right ventricular dysfunction are at high risk for life-threatening events and must be identified in the emergency department for adequate care and hospital admission. Echocardiography can identify right ventricular dysfunction, but this test is not always available, and echocardiographic criteria of right ventricular dysfunction vary among published studies. The primary purpose of this protocol is to study the prognostic value of a cardiac biomarker, h-FABP (heart-type Fatty Acid-Binding Protein) , to identify in the emergency department the patients presenting with high risk pulmonary embolism. As secondary outcomes, H-FABP results will be compared to other cardiac biomarkers (BNP, troponin) and clinical score performances that have been previously studied to stratify the prognosis of patients with pulmonary embolism in the emergency department.