Clinical Profile of Patients Presenting to the Emergency Department with Acute Pulmonary Edema

Abstract

Objective: The objective is to study the clinical profile of patients presenting to an emergency department with acute pulmonary edema. Materials and Methods: This is a prospective, observational study performed in 100 patients presenting to the Emergency Department of Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences (Kochi) with acute pulmonary edema. Patients were selected according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The variables analyzed were age, sex, comorbidities, ABG, cardiac enzymes, NT-prob-type natriuretic peptide, chest X-ray, electrocardiogram, and clinical outcome. Results: Of the 100 patients, 64% were male and 36% were female. Age group affected were between 51 and 70 years (52 patients) and between 71 and 90 years (32 patients). Data analysis revealed that the cause of pulmonary edema in 63 patients was cardiogenic and 37 patients was chronic kidney disease. Conclusion: In this study, the incidence was more in males, nearly twice that of females. The most commonly affected age group was between 51 and 70 years of age (52%). We found that the most common cause of pulmonary edema was congestive heart failure (63%) followed by chronic kidney diseases (37%). Moreover, the most common ABG finding was high anion gap metabolic acidosis, mostly lactic acidosis.

Keywords

• acute pulmonary edema; emergency department; pro-bnp