Pulmonary embolism is an important cause of death in young adults.

BACKGROUND Population-based analysis shows that deaths from pulmonary embolism (PE) are increasing in the older age groups, but it is unclear to what degree PE contributes to death in different ages and gender. METHODS AND RESULTS Potential contribution factors for all PE and for critical PE (in which PE was the primary cause of death or the main diagnosis) were examined in 396,982 autopsy cases. For all PE, odds ratio (OR) in males was 0.61 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.59-0.64, p<0.0001), compared with that in females. ORs were 1.10 (95% CI 1.05-1.14, p<0.0001) in 1991-1994 and 1.19 (95% CI 1.14-1.25, p<0.0001) in 1995-1998, compared with those in 1987-1990. ORs for ages 0-9 and 40+ were significantly low compared with that for ages 20-39. For critical PE, similar results were obtained. Pregnancy and/or delivery were found in 38.5% in cases of critical PE in females aged 20-39. CONCLUSION Compared with other age groups, PE contributed more to deaths in those aged 20-39 years. In recent years, deaths from PE have been slightly but significantly increasing. The incidence of clinically diagnosed critical PE also has been increasing.