Prognostic value of severity by various visceral proteins in critically ill patients with SIRS during 7 days of stay.

Introduction: Critically ill patients typically develop a catabolic stress state as a result of a systemic inflammatory response (SIRS) that alters clinical-nutritional biomarkers, increasing energy demands and nutritional requirements.

Objective: To evaluate the status of albumin, prealbumin and transferrin in critically ill patients and the association between these clinical-nutritional parameters with the severity during a seven day stay in intensive care unit (ICU).

Method: Multicenter, prospective, observational and analytical follow-up study. A total of 115 subjects in critical condition were included in this study. Clinical and nutritional parameters and severity were monitored at admission and at the seventh day of the ICU stay.

Results: A significant decrease in APACHE II and SOFA (p < 0.05) throughout the evolution of critically ill patients in ICU. In general, patients showed an alteration of most of the parameters analyzed. The status of albumin, prealbumin and transferrin were below reference levels both at admission and the 7th day in ICU. A high percentage of patients presented an unbalanced status of albumin (71.3%), prealbumin (84.3%) and transferrin (69.0%). At admission, 27% to 47% of patients with altered protein parameters had APACHE II above 18. The number of patients with altered protein parameters and APACHE II below 18 were significantly higher than severe ones throughout the ICU stay (p < 0.01). Regarding the multivariate analysis, low prealbumin status was the best predictor of severity critical (p < 0.05) both at admission and 7th day of the ICU stay.

Conclusion: The results of the present study support the idea of including low prealbumin status as a severity predictor in APACHE II scale, due to the association found between severity and poor status of prealbumin.