Comparison between sepsis-induced coagulopathy and sepsis-associated coagulopathy criteria in identifying sepsis-associated disseminated intravascular coagulation.

Background: Disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) is associated with increased mortality in sepsis patients. In this study, we aimed to assess the clinical ability of sepsis-induced coagulopathy (SIC) and sepsis-associated coagulopathy (SAC) criteria in identifying overt-DIC and pre-DIC status in sepsis patients.

Methods: Data from 419 sepsis patients were retrospectively collected from July 2018 to December 2022. The performances of the SIC and SAC were assessed to identify overt-DIC on days 1, 3, 7, or 14. The SIC status or SIC score on day 1, the SAC status or SAC score on day 1, and the sum of the SIC or SAC scores on days 1 and 3 were compared in terms of their ability to identify pre-DIC. The SIC or SAC status on day 1 was evaluated as a pre-DIC indicator for anticoagulant initiation.

Results: On day 1, the incidences of coagulopathy according to overt-DIC, SIC and SAC criteria were 11.7%, 22.0% and 31.5%, respectively. The specificity of SIC for identifying overt-DIC was significantly higher than that of the SAC criteria from day 1 to day 14 (P<0.05). On day 1, the SIC score with a cut-off value > 3 had a significantly higher sensitivity (72.00%) and area under the curve (AUC) (0.69) in identifying pre-DIC than did the SIC or SAC status (sensitivity: SIC status 44.00%, SAC status 52.00%; AUC: SIC status 0.62, SAC status 0.61). The sum of the SIC scores on days 1 and 3 had a higher AUC value for identifying the pre-DIC state than that of SAC (0.79 vs. 0.69, P<0.001). Favorable effects of anticoagulant therapy were observed in SIC (adjusted hazard ratio [HR]=0.216, 95% confidence interval [95% CI]: 0.060-0.783, P=0.018) and SAC (adjusted HR=0.146, 95% CI: 0.041-0.513, P=0.003).

Conclusion: The SIC and SAC seem to be valuable for predicting overt-DIC. The sum of SIC scores on days 1 and 3 has the potential to help identify pre-DIC.