Wells PE score calculator

The Wells score for pulmonary embolism is a seven-item bedside rule that converts clinical findings into an additive point total and a published likelihood band. This calculator accepts six required clinical flags plus a measured heart rate in beats per minute, applies the original Wells 2000 weights—three points for signs of deep-vein thrombosis, three points when pulmonary embolism is the leading or equally likely diagnosis, one and a half points for tachycardia above one hundred beats per minute, one and a half points for immobilization or recent surgery, one and a half points for prior DVT or PE, one point for hemoptysis, and one point for active malignancy—and returns the score together with the three-tier and two-tier likelihood categories.

What the Wells PE score measures and how the seven criteria add up

The Wells score for pulmonary embolism is an additive bedside rule that Wells and colleagues published for adults with suspected PE, and it remains one of the most taught pretest-probability tools in emergency medicine, pulmonology, and internal-medicine clerkships. Each of seven independent predictors contributes a published weight when present and zero when absent. Clinical signs and symptoms of deep-vein thrombosis—typically leg swelling and pain with palpation of the deep veins—add three points.

An alternative diagnosis that is less likely than pulmonary embolism, meaning PE is the leading diagnosis or equally likely, also adds three points. A heart rate greater than one hundred beats per minute adds one and a half points; a rate of one hundred exactly does not score. Immobilization for at least three days or surgery in the previous four weeks adds one and a half points.

A previously objectively diagnosed deep-vein thrombosis or pulmonary embolism adds one and a half points. Hemoptysis adds one point. Active malignancy, meaning treatment ongoing, completed within six months, or palliative, adds one point.

The score is the sum of those weights and therefore ranges from zero to twelve and a half in half-point steps. The traditional three-tier model labels a total below two as low probability, two through six as moderate probability, and a total above six as high probability. The dichotomized two-tier model used with D-dimer pathways labels four or less as PE unlikely and more than four as PE likely.

How to read likelihood categories, where the calculator belongs, and what it does not decide

Low probability is a Wells total below two points and is the usual teaching band when few or none of the seven criteria fire. Moderate probability is two through six points, which is the band where many pathways still combine the score with a sensitive D-dimer rather than proceeding straight to computed-tomography pulmonary angiography. High probability is a total above six, where teaching discussions typically treat PE as likely enough that a negative D-dimer does not stand alone.

The two-tier cut is independent of those three labels: four or less is PE unlikely and more than four is PE likely, which is the dichotomy used in many D-dimer exclusion pathways. Those bands are historical cohort strata, not a personal prognosis, and they do not replace arterial-blood-gas interpretation, chest imaging, echocardiography, or a clinician's view of comorbidities this table never captures. Use the calculator for education, exam keys, research coding of suspected-PE rows, and product prototypes that need a deterministic Wells PE step before handing off to licensed systems.

Neighbouring tools such as the revised Geneva score, PERC, or a D-dimer unit converter answer different search intents and should keep their own landings rather than being overloaded here.