The pulmonary embolism rule-out criteria (PERC) may be utilised to negate the need for further pulmonary embolism (PE) workup in patients who are deemed low risk for PE but in whom the diagnosis is being considered 1.
Criteria
age <50 years
pulse <100 bpm
oxygen saturation >95% on room air
absence of unilateral leg swelling
absence of haemoptysis
no recent trauma or surgery
no prior history of venous thromboembolism
no exogenous oestrogen use
Interpretation
If the patient is deemed low risk and meet all of the criteria then there is no need for further PE workup.
If the patient is deemed low risk but is positive for any of the above criteria, a d-dimer should be considered.
If a d-dimer is positive, further investigation such as CTPA or V/Q scan may be indicated.
A meta-analysis of 13,885 patients with 1391 pulmonary embolism diagnoses found that the PERC rule was highly sensitive (0.97, 95% CI 0.96 - 0.98) but poorly specific (0.22, 95% CI 0.22 - 0.24) 2 in patients with low pretest probability.
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