Wells PE · Wells Criteria for Pulmonary Embolism

Pre-test probability for pulmonary embolism. Clinical signs of DVT · PE as likely as or more likely than an alternative diagnosis · heart rate over 100 · immobilisation or surgery in the previous four weeks · previous DVT or PE · haemoptysis · malignancy.

Any thoracic or rib presentation with breathlessness, pleuritic pain, tachycardia, haemoptysis, or a risk factor in the history — recent surgery, immobilisation, long-haul travel, malignancy, previous clot.

Rib and thoracic pain is a common outpatient presentation and this is the screen that sits behind it.

Weighted items summed into low, moderate and high probability (or a two-level likely / unlikely version). Directs the next test — it does not diagnose.

It does not rule out a PE, and it is not a substitute for escalation. A physiotherapist's job here is recognition and referral, not risk stratification for its own sake.

Same logic as the DVT score, higher stakes. No verified accuracy figure is carried in our library and none is printed here.

The item that matters most to a physiotherapist is the second one: is PE as likely as, or more likely than, whatever else you were thinking? If a student cannot confidently say no, the answer is escalation.