[The value of coagulation indicators combined with sequential organ failure assessment in assessing disease severity and prognosis of elderly patients with sepsis].

OBJECTIVE

To explore the value of coagulation indicators and related critical scores in evaluating the severity and prognosis of elderly sepsis patients.

METHODS

Patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) of General Hospital of Ningxia Medical University aged ≥60 years with a definite diagnosis of sepsis from May 2020 to May 2022 were retrospectively included. General epidemiological data, coagulation indices such as prothrombin time (PT), international normalized ratio (INR), prothrombin activity (PTA), activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT), prothrombin time (TT), fibrinogen (FIB), D-dimer, platelet count (PLT), and other laboratory indices within 24 hours of admission to the ICU, acute physiology and chronic health evaluation (APACHE), sequential organ failure assessment (SOFA), sepsis-related complications, and 28-day prognosis were collected. Patients were divided into shock and non-shock groups according to whether septic shock occurred or not, and into death and survival groups according to 28 days outcomes, and the differences of each index between the groups were compared. Independent risk factors for septic shock and 28-day death were analyzed by using univariate and multivariate Logistic regression, and the receiver operator characteristic curve (ROC curve) were further plotted to assess the value of independent risk factors in predicting the occurrence of septic shock and 28-day death in elderly patients with sepsis.

RESULTS

A total of 295 elderly patients with sepsis were included, 192 (65.08%) developed septic shock, and 126 (42.71%) died at 28 days. Multivariate binary Logistic regression analysis showed that SOFA score and PT-INR were independent risk factors for septic shock and 28-day death in elderly patients with sepsis [septic shock: odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (95%CI) were 1.340 (1.186-1.513) and 1.720 (1.235-2.396), respectively; 28-day death: OR and 95%CI were 1.188 (1.044-1.351) and 4.546 (2.613-7.910), respectively, all P < 0.01]. ROC curve analysis showed that SOFA score and PT-INR had certain predictive values for septic shock occurrence and 28-day death in elderly patients with sepsis, and the area under the curve (AUC) for septic shock occurrence were 0.743 and 0.564, respectively. The AUC of 28-day death was 0.711 and 0.651, respectively. The combined predicted AUC was 0.761 and 0.817, the sensitivity was 78.1% and 65.1%, and the specificity was 63.1% and 85.8%, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS

PT-INR and SOFA score have potential predictive value in the assessment of the severity and prognosis of elderly patients with sepsis, and their combined prediction accuracy is higher.