Role of international normalized ratio in nonpulmonary sepsis screening:An observational study

Currently,there is a lack of sepsis screening tools that can be widely used worldwide.Pulmonary sepsis can be of sufficient concern to physicians due to their noticeable symptoms,which usually rely less on screening tools.AIM To investigate the efficiency of the international normalized ratio(INR)for the early rapid recognition of adult nonpulmonary infectious sepsis.METHODS This is a prospective observational study.A total of 108 sepsis patients and 106 nonsepsis patients were enrolled according to relevant inclusion and exclusion criteria.Commonly used clinical indicators,such as white blood cell,neutrophil count,lymphocyte count,neutrophil-lymphocyte count ratio(NLCR),platelets(PLT),prothrombin time,INR,activated partial thromboplastin time,and quick Sequential“Sepsis-related”Organ Failure Assessment(qSOFA)scores were recorded within 24 h after admission.The diagnostic performances of these clinical indicators were analyzed and compared through multivariate logistic regression analysis,Spearman correlation,and receiver operating characteristic curve analysis.The INR value of the sepsis group was significantly higher than that of the nonsepsis group.INR has superior diagnostic efficacy for sepsis,with an area under the curve value of 0.918,when those preexisting diseases which significantly affect coagulation function were excluded.The diagnostic efficacy of the INR was more significant than that of NLCR,PLT,and qSOFA(P<0.05).Moreover,INR levels of 1.17,1.20,and 1.22 could be used to categorize the relative risk of nonpulmonary infections sepsis into three categories:low,medium and high risk,respectively.CONCLUSION The INR is a promising and easily available biomarker for diagnosis,and it can be used as one of the indicators for early screening of adult nonpulmonary infectious sepsis.When its value is higher than the optimal cutoff value(1.22),high vigilance is required for adult nonpulmonary infectious sepsis.

Short-term prone positioning for severe acute respiratory distress syndrome after cardiopulmonary bypass:A case report and literature review

BACKGROUND Aortic dissection is a complex and dangerous cardiovascular disease,with many complications in the perioperative period,including severe acute respiratory distress syndrome(ARDS),which affects prognosis and increases mortality.Despite the effect of prone positioning(PP)in improving oxygenation in patients with severe ARDS,reports about PP early after cardiac surgery are few and such an opt-ion may be an issue in cardiac surgery patients because of the recent sternotomy.CASE SUMMARY A 40-year-old male patient diagnosed with acute type A aortic dissection on October 22,2021 underwent ascending artery replacement plus total aortic arch replacement plus stent elephant trunk implantation under cardiopulmonary bypass.Unfortunately,he developed ARDS on postoperative day 1.Despite comprehensive treatment with aggressive pulmonary protective ventilation,fluid management with continuous renal replacement therapy,the condition continued to deteriorate and rapidly progressed to severe ARDS with a minimum oxygenation index of 51.We are ready to implement salvage therapy,including PP and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation(ECMO).Due to the large amount of pericardial mediastinal and thoracic drainage after thoracotomy,ECMO may result in massive postoperative bleeding.Prolonged prone ventilation is often inappropriate after thoracotomy.Therefore,we chose short-term PP for<6 h.Finally,the oxygenation index greatly improved and the diffuse exudation in both lungs of the patient was significantly reduced with short-term prone positioning.CONCLUSION Intermittent short-term PP can improve early postoperative severe ARDS after acute aortic dissection.