Objective To investigate the relationship between the gastrointestinal function and ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) in critically ill patients who underwent invasive mechanical ventilation. Methods One-hundred and fifty-three cases of critically ill patients receiving mechanically ventilation were recruited in the study. After 5 days of ventilation, the gastrointestinal function score and the C-reactive protein (CRP) of each patient were recorded. The incidence of VAP was recorded during hospitalization. According to the incidence of VAP, all patients were divided intoaVAP group and a non-VAP group. The relationship between gastrointestinal function score and the incidence of VAP was analyzed. The relationship between CRP level and severity degree of VAP was also analyzed. Results VAP occurred in 42 cases with the incidence of 27.45%. The gastrointestinal function score (1.9±1.0 vs. 0.8±1.0, P < 0.05) and CRP level [(52.38±12.06) mg/L vs. (36.69±11.08)mg/L, P < 0.05] were both higher in the VAP group than those in the non-VAP group. At gastrointestinal function score of 0 - 3, the CRP levels were all higher in the VAP group than those in the non-VAP group (P < 0.05). The incidence of VAP was 8.33%, 23.68%, 45.45%, and 59.09% at gastrointestinal function score of 0, 1, 2 and 3, respectively, with significant differences between each other(P < 0.05). Conclusion For critically ill patients receiving invasive mechanical ventilation, the more severe the damage of gastrointestinal function is, the higher the incidence of VAP is, and the more serious the disease is.
ObjectiveTo explore whether platelet activation is associated with systemic inflammatory responses. MethodsWe conducted a cross-sectional study to enroll all aortic dissection (AD) patients (AD group) from January 1, 2015 to June 30, 2015 in the Emergency Department. According to the characteristics of AD patients, we matched hypertension (hypertension group) and health participants (health group) with AD patients at a proportion of 1:1:1. Blood samples were collected on admission for blood routine test [mean platelet volume (MPV)/platelet (PLT)] and inflammatory cytokines [tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α and interleukin (IL)-6] analysis. We compared all parameters among the three groups and performed bivariate correlation analyses. ResultsExpressions of TNF-α and IL-6 in the AD group [(20.9±4.5), (168.8±75.1) pg/mL] were significantly higher than those in the hypertension group [(4.3±1.9), (8.4±2.9) pg/mL] and healthy group [(5.4±1.6), (8.7±3.8) pg/mL] (P＜0.05). MPV/PLT in the AD group was significantly higher than that in the hypertension group and healthy group (0.106±0.035 vs 0.049±0.010, P＜0.05; 0.106±0.035 vs 0.054±0.019, P＜0.05). There were positive correlations between MPV/PLT and TNF-α (r=0.516, P=0.002), and between MPV/PLT and IL-6 (r=0.633, P＜0.001) in the AD group. ConclusionIn summary, our study shows that platelets of AD patients can be activated, and the degree of activation is associated with systemic inflammatory responses.