autoimmune diseases and pulmonary embolism

RAGING HYPOTHETICAL:
--you have a patient with an autoimmune disease & symptoms of a PE. d-dimer might be elevated anyways. how worried should you be about a PE?


SURPRISING NUMBERS:
--In a January Lancet article, a cohort of patients with autoimmune diseases were found to have a higher chance of having a pulmonary embolism. 
--for example: The Odds Ratio (OR) for a patient having polymyalgia rheumatica is 7.86.
--check out this table from the article:

Submitted by T. Boyd.


Reference(s): Risk of pulmonary embolism in patients with autoimmune disorders. Lancet 2012;379:244-49.