Associations between Presence of Relevant Information in Referrals to Radiology and Prevalence Rates in Patients with Suspected Pulmonary Embolism

The amount of relevant clinical information on the request did not correlate with prevalence rates, which may reflect a lack of documentation on the part of emergency physicians who may use a “gestalt” approach. Request forms likely did not capture all relevant patient risks and many factors may interact with each other, both positively and negatively. Pretest probability estimations were rarely performed, despite their inclusion in major society guidelines.