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Table 4 Linear mixed model for mean MRC of all muscle groupsa from the first postoperative day for a maximum of 14 postoperative days (51 patients, 220 observations)

From: Muscle mass, strength and functional outcomes in critically ill patients after cardiothoracic surgery: does neuromuscular electrical stimulation help? The Catastim 2 randomized controlled trial

 

Estimate of mean MRC in pointsa (95 % CI)

P value

Intercept

4.10 (3.80 to 4.39)

<0.001

Postoperative day

0.02 (−0.02 to 0.05)

0.40

Control group

Reference

.

NMES group

−0.45 (−0.88 to −0.03)

0.04

Postoperative day × Control group

Reference

.

Postoperative day × NMES group

0.09 (0.03 to 0.14)

0.002

  1. Days of ICU and hospital discharge, where no NMES was applied anymore, were excluded in this model
  2. The linear mixed model for mean MRC in Table 4 reads as follows:
  3. MRC = 4.10 + (0.02 × postoperative day) - (0.45 × NMES group) + (0.09 × postoperative day × NMES group)
  4. 0.02 is the slope of MRC time variation in the control group, which is the reference group: for each postoperative day, MRC increases by 0.02 points (95 % CI, −0.02 to 0.05 points) in the control group (P = 0.40)
  5. 0.45 represents the lower starting point in the NMES group on the first postoperative day before the NMES intervention began: on the first postoperative day, MRC was about −0.45 points (95 % CI, −0.88 to −0.03 points) lower in the NMES group than in the control group (P = 0.04)
  6. 0.09 is the slope of MRC time variation in the NMES group: the slope of MRC time variation is 4.5 times higher than the slope in the control group (P = 0.002)
  7. MRC Medical Research Council, CI confidence interval, NMES neuromuscular electrical stimulation
  8. aAccording to the MRC scale [33], mean MRC score ranges from a minimum of 0 to a maximum of 5 points
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Critical Care

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