Table 3.

Tissue plasminogen activator indications for patients with presumptive diagnosis of pulmonary embolism in deteriorating hypoxia and shock and types of respiratory support when receiving tPA

tPA indications, n (%)	Total number of patients (n = 57)
Sole RV strain	9 (21.1%)
RV strain and RV thrombus	2 (3.5%)
RV strain and DVT	3 (5.3%)
RV strain and increased Vd	5 (8.8%)
Sole DVT on US	4 (7.0%)
Sole Increased Vd	18 (31.6%)
DVT and increased Vd	2 (3.5%)
Hypoxia and shock without clear evidence of PE	14 (24.6%)
Respiratory support at tPA, n (%)
Non-rebreather mask	0 (0%)
High flow nasal cannula	0 (0%)
Bilevel positive airway ventilation	1 (1.8%)
Invasive mechanical ventilator	56 (98.2%)
D-dimer (μg/ml), median [IQR]	10.5 [3.4–19.2]

tPA tissue plasminogen activator; RV right ventricle; FOCUS focused cardiac ultrasound; DVT deep venous thrombosis; US ultrasound; PE pulmonary embolism