Data From REAL-PE Analysis Show Disparities in Catheter-Based PE Treatment

May 3, 2024—New data from the REAL-PE analysis, which investigated catheter-based pulmonary embolism (PE) treatment, showed that women and Black patients were less frequently treated with minimally invasive therapy compared to men or non-Black patients.

REAL-PE analyzed data from patients within the Truveta database who were diagnosed with PE and treated with ultrasound-assisted catheter-directed thrombolysis (USCDT) or mechanical thrombectomy (MT). Truveta, a data and analytics company, provides electronic health record data from more than 30 United States health systems and 100 million patients, including lab values, comorbidities, images, demographics, and clinical outcomes, as well information about the performance of specific medical devices.

The late-breaking results were presented at SCAI 2024, the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography & Interventions scientific sessions held May 2-4 in Long Beach, California.

According to SCAI’s press release, patient characteristics in the REAL-PE data included race, ethnicity, age, sex, comorbidities, and previous diagnoses. These were assessed to investigate their association with the type of treatment used.

Of the more than 430,000 patients diagnosed with PE, about 2,000 patients analyzed were treated with either USCDT or MT. Women or Black patients were less frequently treated with one of these therapies than men or non-Black patients. Moreover, women more than men and White people more than Black people had higher bleeding rates, noted the SCAI press release.

Sahil A. Parikh, MD, who is Associate Professor of Medicine at Columbia University Irving Medical Center in New York, New York, is the lead author of the study.

“Although this data demonstrates the value of real-world data in the assessments of new technologies in which randomized data are not always available, there is still work that needs to be done to evaluate the current utilization of advanced therapies for PE in underrepresented patient populations,” stated Dr. Parikh in the SCAI press release. “Evaluating care disparities in real clinical practices is key to addressing the existing barrier and improving patient outcomes.”