Shi-Qi Lu

To explore the changes in polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMN) function in peripheral blood of patients with sepsis and liver injury and its prognostic value. A prospective observational study was conducted. The patients who met the criteria of Sepsis-3 admitted to intensive care unit (ICU) of Wuxi People's Hospital Affiliated to Nanjing Medical University from March to August in 2019 were enrolled as the research objects, and the patients were divided into sepsis without liver injury group and sepsis with liver injury group; non-sepsis patients who were hospitalized at the same time were enrolled as non-sepsis group; and the healthy people in the physical examination center were enrolled as healthy control group. The gender, age, white blood cell (WBC), PMN and procalcitonin (PCT) were recorded when the patients were admitted to ICU as well as the people on the day of physical examination. The acute physiology and chronic health evaluation II (APACHE II) and sequential organ failure assessment (SOFA) scores were calculated. The 28-day mortality was recorded. The quantitative level of neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) which reflected by circulating free DNA (cf-DNA/NETs) in peripheral plasma was determined by PicoGreen fluorescence quantitative detection; the qualitative level of NETs was detected by immunofluorescence staining. PMN was extracted from the healthy control group, sepsis without liver injury group and sepsis with liver injury group and cultured in vitro, the quantitative level of cf-DNA/NETs in cell supernatant was determined by PicoGreen fluorescence quantitative detection. The patients were divided into two groups according to 28-day outcome of sepsis patients with liver injury. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was plotted, and the area under ROC curve (AUC) was calculated to analyze the prognostic value of NETs in sepsis patients with liver injury. Finally, 21 sepsis patients without liver injury, 15 sepsis patients with liver injury, 20 with non-sepsis and 20 with healthy examination were enrolled. There was no significant difference in gender or age among the four groups, indicating that the patients in each group were comparable. The levels of cf-DNA/NETs in peripheral blood, WBC and PMN of the sepsis with and without liver injury groups were significantly higher than those of the healthy control group and non-sepsis group, PCT, APACHE II score, SOFA score and 28-day mortality were significantly higher than those of the non-sepsis group, and the levels of cf-DNA/NETs in peripheral blood, PCT and 28-day mortality of the sepsis with liver injury group were significantly higher than those of the sepsis without liver injury group [cf-DNA/NETs (μg/L): 481.60±275.86 vs. 169.76±57.05, PCT (μg/L): 11.29 (1.79, 67.10) vs. 1.11 (0.19, 4.09), 28-day mortality: 73.3% (11/15) vs. 38.1% (8/21), all P < 0.05]. The results of PMN in vitro showed that there was no NETs in normal culture of healthy control group, and a small amount of NETs was detected in sepsis with and without liver injury groups. After stimulation of PMN stimulator phorbol-12-myristate-13-acetic acid (PMA), more NETs were produced in neutrophils of three groups compared with normal culture. Quantitative analysis showed that the level of cf-DNA/NETs in cell supernatant of the sepsis with liver injury group was significantly higher than that of the sepsis without liver injury group (μg/L: 1 872.29±258.44 vs. 1 313.55±147.45, P < 0.01). In 15 sepsis patients with liver injury, 4 patients survived for 28 days (26.7%) and 11 died (73.3%). The cf-DNA/NETs level of the dead group on the day of admission was significantly higher than that of the survival group (μg/L: 582.36±160.05 vs. 241.17±96.14, P < 0.05). ROC curve analysis showed that the AUC of NETs level in peripheral blood for predicting 28-day death of sepsis patients with liver injury was 0.932 [95% confidence interval (95%CI) was 0.787-1.000]; when the best cut-off value was 266.81 μg/L, the sensitivity was 90.9%, the specificity was 75.0%, and the approximate index was 0.659. The function of NETs in sepsis patients with liver injury has been further changed. The level of peripheral blood NETs has a certain guiding value for the prognosis of sepsis patients with liver injury.

To observe the effects of abnormal body temperature and the area under temperature curve on the prognosis of patients with septic shock. A retrospective cohort study was conducted. Patients with septic shock admitted to intensive care unit (ICU) of Wuxi People's Hospital Affiliated to Nanjing Medical University from September 2013 to June 2019 were enrolled. Data were obtained from the hospital case database, including the gender, age, infection source, the length of ICU stay, sequential organ failure assessment (SOFA) score, 21-day prognosis; within the first 24 hours and throughout the period in ICU, the maximum temperature (24 h Tmax, Tmax), lowest temperature (24 h Tmin, Tmin), and the temperature range (24 h Tmax-min, Tmax-min) were aggregated. The area under temperature curve when body temperature was higher than T (A> T), or lower than T (A< T), and area section between T1 and T2 (AT1-T2) was calculated respectively. Patients were divided into survival group and death group according to 21-day prognosis. Binary Logistic regression was used to analyze the effect of the above temperature indices on the prognosis. 635 septic shock patients were enrolled in the study. 476 patients were survived and 159 died within 21 days. Compared with the survival group, the age, SOFA score were higher in the death group, while the length of ICU stay was shorter. There was no significant difference in gender or infection source between two groups. After adjusting for gender, age, the length of ICU stay and SOFA score, binary Logistic regression analysis showed that the increase of Tmax, decrease of Tmin, and increase of Tmax-min were risk factors for 21-day mortality [Tmax: odds ratio (OR) = 2.959, 95% confidence interval (95%CI) was 1.620-5.398, P > 0.001; Tmin: OR = 0.329, 95%CI was 0.140-0.790, P = 0.012; Tmax-min: OR = 3.258, 95%CI was 1.840-5.471, P > 0.001], while 24 h Tmax, 24 h Tmin and 24 h Tmax-min were not related to prognosis. A< 36.0 centigrade (OR = 1.335, 95%CI was 1.102-1.745, P = 0.014), and A> 38.0 centigrade (OR = 1.041, 95%CI was 1.019-1.077, P = 0.001) showed positive correlation with 21-day mortality. When the T level was set at 38.0-40.0 centigrade, for every 1 centigrade×hour increase in A> T, the 21-day relative risk of death increased by 4.1%-83.2%. When the body temperature of patients with septic shock is lower than 36.0 centigrade, or higher than 38.0 centigrade, the 21-day relative risk of death rose with the increase of the magnitude and duration of abnormal body temperature.

First marketed in Japan in the 1990s, olprinone is a newly developed phosphodiesterase III (PDE III) inhibitor. It can not only increase cardiac contractility and also reduce peripheral vascular resistance without affecting mean arterial pressure and heart rate. At present, olprinone is mainly used in the treatment of acute heart failure and postoperative acute cardiac insufficiency. Through selectively inhibiting the activity of PDE III and increasing the concentration of cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) by blocking its degradation, olprinone accelerates the influx of Ca2+ in cardiac myocytes, leading to enhancement of myocardial contractility; and on the other hand, decreases the influx of Ca2+ in vascular smooth muscle cells, resulting in dilation of peripheral blood vessels. Recently, a considerable amount of research has been conducted on olprinone in terms of pulmonary hypertension, myocardial ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury, and arrhythmia. In this review, we summarize the application of olprinione in acute heart failure, pulmonary hypertension, myocardial I/R injury, and arrhythmia, and analyze its application value and related progress in cardiovascular diseases.

Von Willebrand factor (vWF) is only released from endothelial cells and platelets and is an in vivo and in vitro marker of endothelial injury in septic patients with acute lung injury (ALI). Interleukin-8 (IL-8), as a proinflammatory mediator causing recruitment of inflammatory cells, induces an increase in oxidant stress mediators and makes it as a key parameter for localized inflammation. However, it has not been well established whether the level of serum IL-8 is associated with the severity of lung injury and whether it is a prognosis marker for severe lung contusion. This study was to investigate the expression of plasma vWF and IL-8 and their association with the severity and outcomes of severe pulmonary contusion. A total of 63 patients were divided into a severe pulmonary contusion with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) group and a non-ARDS group, or a survivor group and a non-survivor group, or an injury severity score (ISS) <20 group and an ISS ≥20 group. Another 20 healthy volunteers served as controls. The levels of plasma vWF and serum IL-8 were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) at 1, 3, 5 and 7 days after injury. The expression patterns of the plasma vWF and serum IL-8 were compared between different groups. The concentrations of plasma vWF and serum IL-8 were significantly increased in all severe pulmonary contusion patients at all time points in comparison with the control group. The concentrations of plasma vWF in patients with ARDS increased during the whole study period, but vWF in patients with non-ARDS increased gradually until day 5 and then decreased at day 7. The concentration of serum IL-8 showed a similar expression pattern in both groups, but the expression increased more significantly in the ARDS group than in the non-ARDS group. Interestingly, both plasma vWF and serum IL-8 levels steadily increased in the non-survivor group. Furthermore, the level of plasma vWF was higher in the ISS≥20 group than in the ISS<20 group. The level of serum IL-8 in the ISS≥20 group was consistently high, while that in the ISS<20 group peaked at day 3 and decreased at day 5. In addition, the level of plasma vWF was positively correlated with platelet count, but negatively correlated with oxygen index. The level of serum IL-8 was positively correlated with white blood cell count and ISS score, and inversely correlated with oxygen index. The elevated levels of plasma vWF and serum IL-8 in severe pulmonary contusion patients reflect the severity of pulmonary injury and patients outcomes, suggesting that the plasma vWF and serum IL-8 are sensitive markers for clinical evaluation of the severity of pulmonary injury and predication of patient prognosis.