Encephalopathy is a common complication of sepsis, and its onset can occur at any stage of sepsis and implies worse prognosis. However, the incidence, epidemiology, and pathogenesis of sepsis-associated encephalopathy remain controversial. The purpose of this study was to investigate the epidemiological features and risk factors for sepsis-associated encephalopathy.Our retrospective study included all patients with sepsis admitted to our intensive care unit from 2008 to 2011. After excluding 91 patients, 232 patients were assigned to either a sepsis-associated encephalopathy group or sepsis without encephalopathy group. Between-group differences in baseline patient data including vital signs, disease severity, pathogens, sites of infection, biochemical indicators, and time on a mechanical ventilator, intensive care unit (ICU) stay, and 28-day mortality rate were analyzed.The incidence of sepsis-associated encephalopathy was 17.7%. The sepsis-associated encephalopathy group had significantly higher 28-day mortality (56.1% vs. 35.1%; P=0.013), spent a significantly longer time on a ventilator ((8.2±2.2) days vs. (2.9±0.4) days; P=0.021), and had a significantly longer ICU stay ((12.4±2.4) days vs. (7.1±0.6) days; P=0.042). Acute physiology and chronic health evaluation II score, Glasgow coma scale, heart rate, blood lactate, serum sodium, platelets, serum albumin, and pH values were related to the presence of encephalopathy. Patients with biliary tract infections and intestinal infections caused by Staphylococcus aureus, Enterococcus faecium, Acinetobacter spp, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Stenotrophomonas maltophilia, were more prone to develop sepsis-associated encephalopathy.Encephalopathy increases mortality rate in septic patients. Clinical intervention to reduce risk factors and thereby morbidity and mortality depends on a correct understanding of the differences between patients with sepsis and patients with both sepsis and encephalopathy.
Objective To evaluate the clinical efficacy of lateral position ventilation and prone position ventilation in the pa- tients with acute respiratory distress syndrome.Methods 23 patients were randomly divided into two groups:lateral position ventila- tion group and prone position ventilation group.Respiratory and circulatory indices were monitored supine position,at 1,2,4 hours af- ter position changes and 1 hour after returning to supine position,and also compared between the two groups.Results Compared with supine position,PaO_2 and oxygenation index increased at 1,2,4 hours after position changes and 1 hour after returning to supine posi- tion in two groups,and there were statistical differences(P<0.05);There were no statistical differences in HR,MAP,PaCO_2 and peak inspiratory pressure(PIP)in two groups(P>0.05).If a 10 mm Hg increase was regarded as the standard of treatment effectiveness, the effective rate in the lateral position ventilation group was 73.3% and in the prone position ventilation group was 66.7%.There was no statistical difference(P>0.05).Conclusion As a means in the treatment of acute respiratory distress syndrome,lateral position ventilation and prone position ventilation showed similar effects,but the lateral position is more convenient for the practice and medical care,thus needs further investigation.
【Objective】To investigate the effects of Xuebijing injection on the peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) expression of toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) and the expression of cytokines in patients with pyemia.【Methods】Forty patients with pyemia were randomly divided into two groups. Twenty cases in control group were treated with routine combined therapy; 20 cases in treatment group were added with Xuebijing injection. The changes of TLR4 on PBMC, TNF-α and IL-6 of the two groups were respectively detected before treatment, on the first, third and seventh days after treatment.【Results】After seven days treatment, the expression of TLR4, TNF-α and IL-6 in both groups were declined, but they were declined more significantly in the treatment group who were added with Xuebijing injection. 【Conclusion】Xuebijing injection has important value in the prognosis of the patients with pyemia due to its removal function of cytokines.
To investigate the effect of apoptosis of CD4+ CD25+ regulatory T cells (Tregs) on proliferation as well as secretory function of effector T cells (Teff) and potential influence of Xuebijing injection on them in septic rats.A sepsis model was reproduced by cecal ligation puncture (CLP), and Wistar rats were randomly divided into the control group (n = 8), sham-operated group (n = 8), CLP group (n = 8), and Xuebijing injection treatment group (n = 8). CD4+ CD25+ Tregs in each group were separated by immunomagnetic beads isolate system on day 3, the apoptosis rate, expression of forkhead/winged helix transcription factor p3 (Foxp3) and cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated antigen 4 (CTLA-4) on Tregs were analyzed by flow cytometry, and secretion levels of interleukin (IL)-10 from Tregs were measured by ELISA. Following co-culture of CD4+ CD25+ Treg with CD4+ CD25- T cells (1:1) for 68 hours, proliferative activity of Teff was determined by MTT, and IL-2/sIL-2R alpha levels were measured by ELISA.The apoptosis rate of Tregs in control group was 12.03% +/- 0.89%, which was not significantly different from sham-operated group 9.48% +/- 2.17%. The apoptosis rate of Tregs in CLP group 5.87% +/- 0.44% was lower than that in control group (P < 0.01), and treatment with Xuebijing injection markedly enhanced the apoptosis of Tregs 27.29% +/- 2.48%. Compared to CLP group, expression of Foxp3, CTLA-4, and the secretion of IL-10 of Treg were significantly lowered in Xuebijing injection group (all P < 0.01). The Teff proliferative activity in response to ConA, and IL-2 levels of Teff in CLP group were significantly suppressed compared with control group (P < 0.01), and secretion of sIL-2R alpha in the supernatants was much higher than that of the control group. In comparison to the CLP group, inhibitory rate of Teff proliferative activity and the sIL-2R alpha levels were significantly decreased, while the secretion of IL-2 was increased in Xuebijing injection group (P <0.01).CD4+ CD25+ Tregs could markedly upregulate the suppressive function on Teff in sepsis, and treatment with Xuebijing injection effectively enhanced apoptosis of Tregs, thereby down-regulating the suppression on Teff.
Abstract Background: Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a frequent complication in septic patients and increases in-hospital mortality. Our aim was to evaluate the impact of early versus late initiation of renal replacement therapy (RRT) on clinical outcomes in septic patients with acute kidney injury (AKI). Methods: Systematic review and meta-analysis were used in this study. We searched PubMed, EMBASE, MEDLINE and Cochrane Library. Results: Nine studies (two randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and seven retrospective cohorts) including 1694 patients were identified for detailed evaluation. This meta-analysis suggested that early RRT initiation within 48 hours (OR 0.30; 95% CI 0.20 to 0.45; I 2 0%) in septic patients with AKI reduced 28-day mortality (odds ratio (OR) 0.56; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.37 to 0.86; I 2 73%), but intensive care unit (ICU) length of stay (LOS) (mean difference (MD) -1.49; 95% CI -3.65 to -0.67; I 2 53%), hospital LOS (MD -3.18; 95% CI -7.35 to 0.99; I 2 41%), the duration of RRT (MD -2.05; 95%CI -6.86 to 2.76; I 2 83%) and the duration of ventilation (MD 1.99; 95%CI -2.76 to 6.75; I 2 85%) were not influenced by the timing of RRT initiation. Conclusions: Early initiation of RRT within 48 hours in septic patients with AKI may have a beneficial impact on survival. However, this conclusion is based on heterogeneous trials of different quality and only two RCTs. Conclusive therapeutic recommendations regarding the optimal time to initiate RRT remain uncertain.
Background Sepsis-associated encephalopathy (SAE) is defined as diffuse brain dysfunction associated with sepsis and leads to a high mortality rate. We aimed to develop and validate an optimal machine-learning model based on clinical features for early predicting sepsis-associated acute brain injury. Methods We analyzed adult patients with sepsis from the Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care (MIMIC III) clinical database. Candidate models were trained using random forest, support vector machine (SVM), decision tree classifier, gradients boosting machine (GBM), multiple layer perception (MLP), extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost), light gradients boosting machine (LGBM) and a conventional logistic regression model. These methods were applied to develop and validate the optimal model based on its accuracy and area under curve (AUC). Results In total, 12,460 patients with sepsis met inclusion criteria, and 6,284 (50.4%) patients suffered from sepsis-associated acute brain injury. Compared other models, the LGBM model achieved the best performance. The AUC for both train set and test set indicated excellent validity (Trainset AUC 0.91, Testset AUC 0.87). Feature importance analysis showed that glucose, age, mean arterial pressure, heart rate, hemoglobin, and length of ICU stay were the top 6 important clinical factors to predict occurrence of sepsis-associated acute brain injury. Conclusion Almost half of patients admitted to ICU with sepsis had sepsis-associated acute brain injury. The LGBM model better identify patients with sepsis-associated acute brain injury than did other machine-learning models. Glucose, age, and mean arterial pressure were the three most important clinical factors to predict occurrence of sepsis-associated acute brain injury.