Eicosanoids as Risk and Prognostic Factors for Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome in Sepsis Patients

Abstract

Although a number of studies have reported elevated levels of eicosanoids in acute lung injury with sepsis, the possibility that eicosanoids may act as risk and prognostic factors for sepsis patients who develop acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) remains poorly studied. To clarify this aspect, we measured the levels of eicosanoids and used logistic regression analysis and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves to investigate whether eicosanoids could act as risk and prognostic factors for sepsis patients who develop ARDS. We conducted a casecontrol study comparing 13 sepsis patients with ARDS and 23 sepsis patients without ARDS. The plasma levels of leukotriene B4 (LTB4), 6-keto-prostaglandin F1α (6-keto-PGF1α) and thromboxane B2 (TXB2) were measured by radioimmunoassays as substitutes for the plasma levels of PGI2 and TXA2, which are unstable. The levels of eicosanoids in sepsis patients with ARDS were significantly higher than those in sepsis patients without ARDS. Logistic regression analysis revealed that LTB4 was the only risk factor for sepsis patients with ARDS (odds ratio, 1.10; P=0.02). The area under the ROC curve values for all eicosanoids were significantly greater than 0.5 (P<0.001), and the likelihood value for the TXB2 levels was higher than those of the other eicosanoids. We conclude that LTB4 may be an important risk factor for sepsis patients with ARDS, while TXA2 may be an important prognostic factor for sepsis patients with ARDS.