Research progress on biomarkers of pulmonary embolism

Abstract Objectives To present a review on the traditional and new biomarkers of pulmonary embolism (PE). Data source A systematic search has been carried out using keywords as PE, biomarker, diagnosis and risk stratification. Results The results of this work have been structured into three parts: first, conventional biomarkers for vascular, cardiac and inflammation, including static markers and dynamic markers for measuring the time course; next, a review of new biomarkers in recent years, such as RNAs and markers obtained through proteomics and mass spectrometry; finally, use of new detection methods to directly detect the activity of existing markers, such as the determination of coagulation factor II and plasmin activities based on the proteolytic activation of an engineered zymogen. Conclusions This work summarized the characteristics of current traditional biomarkers for clinical diagnosis and risk stratification of PE, as well as a series of newly discovered biomarkers obtained through various clinical experimental methods.