Summary characteristics of articles included in the systematic review
| Study characteristics | Number (%) |
| Cohort (n=55), n (%) | 54 (98.2) |
| Case control (n=55), n (%) | 1 (1.8) |
| Prospective (n=54), n (%) | 32 (58.2) |
| Multicentre (n=55), n (%) | 19 (34.5) |
| Aim of study to assess TTE (n=55) | 29 (52.7) |
| Patient characteristics | |
| Number of haemodynamically stable patients with TTE (n=53), n | 17 090 |
| Number of haemodynamically stable patients with TTE per study (n=53), median (IQR) | 179 (96–462) |
| Female study patients (n=52), n (%) | 8975 (52.8) |
| Male study patients (n=52), n (%) | 8036 (47.2) |
| Number of patients with RVD (n=44), n (%) | 5399 (37.8) |
| Number of patients with no RVD (n=44), n (%) | 8889 (62.2) |
| Geographic region (n=55) | |
| Asia/Oceania | 13 (23.6) |
| Europe | 31 (56.4) |
| Americas | 11 (20.0) |
| PE risk group in study (n=55) | |
| Low and intermediate risk | 44 (80.0) |
| Intermediate risk | 5 (9.1) |
| All risk | 6 (10.9) |
| RVD definition (n=55) | |
| Composite RVD definition | 37 (67.3) |
| Individual variable RVD definition | 18 (32.7) |
| Time to TTE (n=40) | |
| ≤24 h | 11 (27.5) |
| ≤48–72 h | 29 (72.5) |
| Primary outcome studied (n=55) | |
| Combined adverse events | 31 (56.4) |
| All-cause mortality | 19 (34.5) |
| PE-related mortality | 5 (9.9) |
| Outcomes studied (n=55) | |
| Combined adverse events | 37 (45.7) |
| All-cause mortality | 27 (33.3) |
| PE-related mortality | 17 (21.0) |
| Follow-up (n=55) | |
| In hospital or <14 days | 31 (56.3) |
| 14–30 days | 24 (43.7) |
High-risk patients are defined by the presence of haemodynamic instability, intermediate-risk patients are haemodynamically stable but have a simplified pulmonary embolism severity index of >0 and may have evidence of right ventricular dysfunction (RVD) or positive cardiac biomarkers. Low-risk patients are defined as being haemodynamically stable with no evidence of RVD or abnormal cardiac biomarkers [3]. IQR: interquartile range; PE: pulmonary embolism; TTE: transthoracic echocardiogram.