Influencing factors for persistent inflammation, immunosuppression, and catabolism syndrome in patients with severe acute pancreatitis and establishment of a predictive model / 临床肝胆病杂志

Objective To investigate the influencing factors for persistent inflammation, immunosuppression, and catabolism syndrome (PICS) in patients with severe acute pancreatitis(SAP), and to establish a predictive model. Methods A retrospective analysis was performed for the clinical data of 163 patients who were admitted to the intensive care unit and the emergency intensive care unit due to SAP in The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University from May 2012 to May 2022, and according to the diagnostic criteria for PICS, these patients were divided into PICS group (65 SAP patients with PICS) and non-PICS group (98 SAP patients without PICS). The independent-samples t test was used for comparison of normally distributed continuous data between two groups, and the Mann-Whitney U rank sum test was used for comparison of non-normally distributed continuous data between two groups; the chi-square test or the Fisher's exact test was used for comparison of categorical data between two groups. Variance inflation factor and correlation matrix heatmap were used to evaluate multicollinearity between variables, and Lasso regression and multivariate logistic regression were used to identify independent risk factors and establish a nomogram predictive model. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve, the calibration curve, and the Hosmer-Lemeshow goodness-of-fit test were used for the internal validation of the model, and the decision curve was used to evaluate the clinical practicability of the model. Results The univariate analysis showed that there were significant differences between the PICS group and the non-PICS group in mean arterial pressure, hemoglobin, hematocrit (HCT), neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), blood urea nitrogen, creatinine, Glasgow coma score, Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation Ⅱ (APACHE Ⅱ) score, Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) score, mechanical ventilation, acute respiratory distress syndrome, acute kidney injury (AKI), acute liver injury, hypovolemic shock, sepsis, intra-abdominal hypertension, intra-abdominal hemorrhage, and multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (all P < 0.05). The Lasso regression analysis showed that related predictive variables included PLR, HCT, APACHE Ⅱ, SOFA, mechanical ventilation, AKI, hypovolemic shock, and intra-abdominal hypertension, and the multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that PLR (odds ratio [ OR ]=1.006, P < 0.05), mechanical ventilation ( OR =4.324, P < 0.05), AKI ( OR =3.432, P < 0.05), and hypovolemic shock ( OR = 6.910, P < 0.05) were independent risk factors for PICS in patients with SAP. Model fitting was performed for the above factors, and bootstrap internal validation showed that the nomogram model had an area under the ROC curve of 0.874 (95% confidence interval: 0.822-0.925); the calibration curve of the model was close to the reference curve, and the Hosmer-Lemeshow goodness-of-fit test showed that the model was well fitted ( χ 2 =8.895, P =0.351). The decision curve analysis showed that the predictive model had good clinical practicability. Conclusion PLR, mechanical ventilation, AKI, and hypovolemic shock are independent risk factors for PICS in patients with SAP, and the nomogram model established has good discriminatory ability, calibration, and clinical practicability.

Early risk factors for persistent inflammation immunosuppression and catabolism syndrome in patients with severe polytrauma / 中华急诊医学杂志

Objective:To retrospectively assess early risk factor of persistent inflammation, immunosuppression and catabolism syndrome (PICS) in patients with severe polytrauma, in order to deepen the understanding of the pathological changes of chronic critical illness (CCI) after severe polytrauma.Methods:A total of 276 patients with severe polytrauma admitted to Department of Trauma Surgery of Tongji Hospital from March 2019 to December 2020 were enrolled. Inclusion criteria included patients who suffered severe polytrauma, and injury severity score (ISS) ≥27, age ≥18 years old, and had length of hospital stay >15 days. Exclusion criteria included previous medical history of malignancy, or immunological, consumptive, and metabolic diseases. The patient’s clinical characteristics, ISS scores, Glasgow coma scale (GCS), sequential organ failure assessment, APACHEⅡ scores, and nutrition and immune indexes on day 3 after injury were collected. The difference between the PICS group and N-PICS group were performed by Student’s t test, χ2 test or Mann-Whitney U test. The early risk factors were assessed in patients with PICS after severe polytrauma by logistic regression analysis. Results:According to the diagnostic criteria of PICS, all enrolled patients were divided into two groups: PICS group ( n=102) and N-PICS group (without PICS, n=174). Compared with the N-PICS group, patients in the PICS group were older and associated with more brain and chest injuries. On the third day after injury, serum levels of IL-6 and IL-10, and the ratio of Treg cells were significantly higher, the number and ratio of NK cells subset, and the ratio of activated T lymphocyte were significantly lower in the PICS group than in the N-PICS group ( P<0.05). Logistic regression analysis showed that the age>65 years old ( OR=2.375, 95% CI: 1.442-4.531), GCS ≤8 scores ( OR=3.431, 95% CI: 1.843-8.512), IL-10 >10 pg/mL ( OR=2.173, 95% CI: 1.751-5.614), the ratio of Treg cells >7% ( OR=3.871, 95% CI: 1.723-6.312), and the occurrence of traumatic brain and chest injuries ( OR=2.846, 95% CI: 1.522-5.361) were the early risk factors in patients with PICS after severe polytrauma. Conclusions:Age>65 years old, GCS score, IL-10, the ratio of Treg cells, and the occurrence of traumatic brain and chest injuries could be used as the early risk factors in patients with PICS after severe polytrauma. The discovery of early risk factors will help identify patients at high risk of PICS after severe polytrauma, and create the possibility for early intervention.

A prospective study of clinical characteristics and prognosis in patients with persistent inflammation, immunosuppression and catabolism syndrome after polytrauma / 中华急诊医学杂志

Objective:To prospectively assess clinical characteristics, potential causes and prognosis in patients with persistent inflammation, immunosuppression and catabolism syndrome (PICS) after polytrauma.Methods:Totally 1 083 patients with polytrauma admitted to Department of Traumatic Surgery of Tongji Hospital from Janury 2019 to July 2020 were enrolled. Exclusion criteria included age<18 years old, length of hospital stay<15 days, previous medical history of malignancy, or immunological, consumptive, and metabolic diseases. According to the diagnostic criteria of PICS, all enrolled patients were divided into two groups: PICS group and N-PICS group (without PICS). The patient’s clinical characteristics, ISS score, GCS score, SOFA score, and prognosis were collected. The χ2 test or Student’s t test was uesd to compare the difference between the PICS group and N-PICS group. Results:The incidence of PICS in patients with polytrauma was 11.7% (127/1 083). The majority of PICS patients were middle-aged and elderly men, 68.5% with traumatic brain injury and 59% with thoracic injury. GCS score was significantly lower, while ISS, APACHE II and SOFA scores were significantly higher in the PICS group than in the N-PICS group ( P<0.01, P<0.05). Among PICS patients, 79.5% were treated with mechanical ventilation and 76.3% were associated with pulmonary infection, with a 28-day mortality of 5.5% and a 180-day mortality of 16.5%, which were siginifcantly different from those without PICS. Conclusions:PICS has a high incidence after polytrauma and is commonly seen in middle-aged and elderly male patients with severe polytrauma, especially accompanied by traumatic brain injury or/and thoracic injury. Patients with PICS after polytrauma have poor long-term prognosis, so early identification and intervention should be strengthened in clinical practice.

Nutritional support therapy during treatment of chronic critical illness / 中华胃肠外科杂志

Chronic critical illness (CCI) refers to a group of critically ill patients who survive the acute phase of intensive care, but with persistent organ dysfunction, thus entering a chronic period of continuous dependence on life support system, and still need to stay in intensive care unit (ICU) for a long time. Persistent inflammatory response-immunosuppression-catabolic syndrome (PICS) is the main pathophysiological feature of CCI. Three factors interact to form a vicious circle, leading to poor prognosis. Nutritional support therapy is a key link in the comprehensive treatment of CCI. Enteral nutrition (EN) should be started as soon as possible if conditions permit. If EN can not be implemented, temporary or transitional parenteral nutrition (PN) should be used, and EN should be added gradually in time. At the same time, the amount of PN should be gradually reduced. When EN meets more than 60% of patients’ energy and protein requirements, PN can be considered to be discontinued. The main strategies and functions of CCI nutritional support therapy are as follows: strengthening high protein supply to correct negative nitrogen balance and inhibit catabolism, selecting branched chain amino acids (BCAA) to promote anabolism, using immunomodulators (arginine, ω3 polyunsaturated fatty acids) to improve immune suppression and inflammatory response, supplementing micronutrients (vitamins and trace elements) to counteract the decrease in intake and the increase in consumption, and adding probiotics to maintain the intestinal microecological balance, and so on. Reasonable nutritional support therapy not only improve malnutrition of CCI patients, but also help to reduce complications, thus speeding up rehabilitation, improving prognosis, shortening ICU hospitalization time, and even reducing mortality.

Advances in the research of severe burn-related corticosteroid insufficiency / 中华烧伤杂志

Despite considerable advances in diagnosis and treatment of the critical illness-related corticosteroid insufficiency (CIRCI), it is still not clear that whether it is common in severe burn patients or not, and how clinical diagnosis, treatment, and research progress. Severe burn is a systemic disease involving the damage of multiple organs of the whole body. The course of the disease is relatively long, and there often exists persistent inflammation, immunosuppression, and catabolism. On the basis of CIRCI study, the epidemiological evidence, possible mechanism, suspicious clinical manifestations, diagnosis and treatment of severe burn-related corticosteroid insufficiency (SBRCI) were briefly reviewed in this article in order to help clinical diagnosis and treatment of SBRCI.