Objective: To investigate the prognostic value of cardiac ultrasound left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) on admission in patients with septic cardiomyopathy.
Methods: A retrospective cohort study was conducted. The patients with septic cardiomyopathy hospitalized in the intensive care unit of Zhoupu Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Health College from January 2019 to March 2023 were enrolled. The general information including gender and age, LVEF on admission, severity of illness scores within 24 hours after admission [acute physiology and chronic health evaluation II (APACHE II) score and sequential organ failure assessment (SOFA) score], procalcitonin (PCT), cardiac biomarkers [N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP), cardiac troponin T (cTnT), and MB isoenzyme of creatine kinase (CK-MB)], mitochondria related indicators [aspartate aminotransferase (AST), AST/alanine aminotransferase (ALT) ratio], blood lactate (Lac), the usage of vasoactive drugs and mechanical ventilation, and the prognosis during hospitalization were collected. The differences in above clinical data between the two groups were compared. The variables with statistically significant differences in univariate analysis were incorporated into multivariate Logistic regression analysis to analyze the independent risk factors for death during hospitalization in patients with septic cardiomyopathy. Receiver operator characteristic curve (ROC curve) was drawn to evaluate the prognostic value of LVEF by echocardiography on admission in patients with septic cardiomyopathy during hospitalization.
Results: A total of 62 patients were enrolled, including 36 males and 26 females. Thirty-nine cases died and 23 cases survived during hospitalization, and the mortality was 62.90%. Compared with the survival group, the LVEF of patients on admission was lower in the death group [0.51 (0.40, 0.57) vs. 0.56 (0.51, 0.63), P < 0.01], APACHE II score, SOFA score, Lac, NT-proBNP, CK-MB within 24 hours after admission were higher [APACHE II score: 22.18±8.38 vs. 17.39±8.22, SOFA score: 9.90±3.87 vs. 7.09±3.27, Lac (mmol/L): 5.10 (2.63, 11.50) vs. 2.00 (1.40, 5.00), NT-proBNP (μg/L): 5.24 (2.84, 11.29) vs. 2.53 (0.35, 6.63), CK-MB (U/L): 1.88 (0.21, 5.33) vs. 0.17 (0.02, 1.62), all P < 0.05], and the proportion of vasoactive drug application was higher (82.05% vs. 47.83%, P < 0.01). Multivariate Logistic regression analysis showed that LVEF on admission was an independent risk factor for predicting the prognosis of patients with septic cardiomyopathy during hospitalization [odds ratio (OR) = 0.920, 95% confidence interval (95%CI) was 0.855-0.990, P = 0.025]. ROC curve analysis showed that the area under the ROC curve (AUC) of LVEF on admission for predicting the death of patients with septic cardiomyopathy was 0.715 (95%CI was 0.585-0.845, P = 0.005). When LVEF ≤ 0.52, the sensitivity was 73.9%, and the specificity was 61.5%.
Conclusions: The lower cardiac ultrasound LVEF on admission, the worse the prognosis of patients with septic cardiomyopathy. The cardiac ultrasound LVEF on admission can be used as a clinical index to evaluate the severity of the condition and predict the prognosis of patients with septic cardiomyopathy.