Response to Reviewer 2

- they state that preclinical tests were collected within 24 h of injury. As the mean
time to PTE was over a week after that time, we consider that these test results are
irrelevant especially in trauma patients in whom the coagulation profile can quickly
change from hour to hour but let alone on the course of one or even two weeks (as
states by the mean time from injury to PTE).

Author Response：We thank the reviewer for his/her comments. Yes, we totally agree with
reviewer’s comments “the coagulation profile can quickly change from hour to hour after
trauma and the mean time to PE was over a week”. In the present study, considering the
uncertainty in the timing of PE occurrence, we selected 24 hours post-trauma to evaluate
coagulation abnormalities in trauma patients. Because 24 hours after injury is the peak of
coagulation disorder in trauma patients, the assessment of partial coagulation parameters at 24
hours after injury is relatively better to reflect the actual coagulation condition and
coagulation severity of trauma patients. Meanwhile, it is fundamental to measure at the same
time point to remove experimental errors in spite of the timing slightly defective. Therefore,
some laboratory values were assessed on 24 hours after injury, prognostic data including
incidence, complications and mortality were assessed from injury to 28 days after injury. PE
was also assessed by clinical manifestations and computed tomography pulmonary
angiography (CTPA) from injury to 28 days after injury.

- secondary, the authors are correct that CT is performed in more centres as a gold
standard to diagnose PTE, but the CT was only performed in order to confirm the
diagnosis based on clinical and preclinical tests (although d-dimers were collected one
week earlier??) and hence Manny patients that might had subclinical PTE or in whom
the clinical signs could not be assessed due to trauma (mechanical ventilation etc)
were not tested using a CT and hence we don't know the exact incidence of PTE.

Author Response ：Yes, as the reviewer said, some subclinical PTE and a small number of
patients who cannot be examined by CT due to their diseases (in fact, we have tried to reduce
this error, such as the use of portable ventilator) would be ignored and affect the results. This
is one of the limitations of our study, which has been explained in the discussion section of
the manuscript.

- remember that DVT in the lower limbs is not the only cause for PTE in trauma patients

Author Response：Yes, lower limb venous thrombosis is an important risk factor for PTE but
it's not the only risk factor. Due to the small number of cases of pulmonary embolism in our
study, no specific statistical analysis was conducted on the risk factors of PTE.

- the authors report that some patients received TXA but they do not report it

Author Response：We thank the reviewer for his/her comments and suggestions. All patients
included in the study were treated according to the latest guidelines, and a small number of
patients received TXA. We have added this part of the report to the manuscript.

- of note, INR is a dimensionless number and should not be reported as a %

Author Response ： Thanks for the reviewer's comment. It was our oversight. We have
corrected this mistake in the manuscript.