Free hemoglobin concentration in severe sepsis: methods of measurement and prediction of outcome

Table 1 Characterization of postoperative patients, survivors and non-survivors of severe sepsis based on 30-day mortality.

	Postoperative patients	Survivors of severe sepsis	Non-survivors of severe sepsis
Patient characteristics
Patients, n	136	111	50
Age, years	60 (46, 69)	60 (48, 72)	56 (49, 66)
Gender, male/female	68/68	64/47	28/22
Disease severity
SAPS II score	21.5 (16.0, 27.3)	44.0 (31.0, 57.0)	54.0 (40.0, 60.5)
SOFA score	3.0 (1.8, 6.0)	11.0 (8.0, 14.0)	12.0 (10.0, 15.0)
Procalcitonin, ng/ml	1.5 (0.5, 3.7)	3.2 (1.0, 16.0)	3.8 (1.1, 16.7)
Primary diagnosis ( n =)
GI disease	20	31	17
GI cancer	40	16	10
Cancer other	22	7	6
Urogenital disease	6	3	2
Urogenital cancer	18	3	2
Cardiovascular	0	24	4
Lung disease	0	19	5
Lung cancer	0	1	2
Other diseases	30	7	2
Infection type (in %)
Gram positive	0	42.9	34.7
Gram negative	0	36.1	32.6
Fungal	0	14.2	18.4
Cultures negative	0	6.8	14.3
Kidney function
Urea, mg/l	140 (100, 203)	410 (230, 540)	490 (300, 745)
Dialysis, % patients	29.4	45.9	80.0

Included are biometric data, primary diagnosis (which was identical to the type of surgery in the postoperative patients), disease severity, and urea obtained within 24 h of ICU admission. Note, that more than one infection type was determined in several patients. Requirement for dialysis within 30 days is shown. Values are given as median [quartiles] unless stated otherwise. SAPS II score: simplified acute physiology score II; SOFA score: sequential organ failure assessment score.

ISSN: 1364-8535