Risk factors for death in patients with acute diquat poisoning.

Background: In recent years, with the ban on paraquat, the use of diquat (DQ) as a substitute has significantly increased, leading to a corresponding increase in DQ poisoning cases. This study aimed to identify relevant risk factors affecting patient prognosis and provide a basis for the assessment of patient prognosis.

Methods: Patients with DQ poisoning were included from September 2020 to December 2023, and data were extracted from their electronic medical records on the first day of hospitalization. Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (LASSO) regression and binary multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed on the collected clinical data to identify risk factors.

Results: A total of 117 patients with acute DQ poisoning were included, and were categorized into two groups based on their 28-day outcomes: survival group (n=67) and non-survival group (n=50). There were no statistically significant differences between the two groups in terms of sex, lymphocyte count, platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio, or blood purification rate (P>0.05). The analysis revealed that age (odds ratio [OR] 1.094, 95% confidence interval [95% CI] 1.022-1.171), blood drug concentration (OR 3.659, 95% CI 1.846-7.252), lactate (OR 1.686, 95% CI 1.062-2.678), neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) (OR 1.101, 95% CI 1.017-1.192), albumin (OR 1.275, 95% CI 1.107-1.468), and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) (OR 1.027, 95% CI 1.005-1.051) were the risk factors for mortality.

Conclusion: This study identified key risk factors for 28-day mortality in patients with acute DQ poisoning, which may provide valuable guidance for clinical treatment, particularly for emergency physicians.