ObjectivesTo compare the efficacy of acute physiology and chronic health evaluationⅡ (APACHEⅡ), national early warning score (NEWS), pulmonary embolism severity index (PESI) and Charlson comorbidity index (CCI) on pulmonary embolism (PE) prognosis.MethodsClinical data of patients with PE treated in The Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University from 2010 to 2017 were retrospectively analyzed. They were divided into death group and survival group, and four clinical scores were calculated. The differences of risk factors between the two groups were compared. Logistic regression analysis was used to obtain the independent risk factors related to mortality. The ROC working curve was used to compare the capability of four clinical scores for PE mortality. SPSS 24.0 and Medcalc 18.2.1 software were used for statistical analysis. ResultsA total of 318 patients with PE were included, and the mortality rate was 13.2%. The APACHEⅡ, NEWS, PESI and CCI of the death group were higher than those of the survival group. There were significant differences between two groups (P<0.05). It was confirmed by logistic regression analysis that cerebrovascular disease, heart rate, leukocyte, troponin T, arterial partial pressure of oxygen, right ventricular dysfunction (RVD) were independent risk factors for 90-day mortality. The areas under the ROC curve of APACHEⅡ, CCI, PESI, NEWS were 0.886, 0.728, 0.715 and 0.731, respectively. The area under the ROC curve of APACHEⅡ was the largest, which was better than NEWS, CCI and PESI (P<0.05), and there was no significant difference among NEWS, CCI and PESI.ConclusionsAPACHEⅡ may be the best predictor of mortality in PE patients, which is superior to NEWS, CCI and PESI.