title: Prognostic value of endotoxin activity assay in patients with severe sepsis after cardiac surgery.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  To evaluate the prognostic value of endotoxin activity assay (EAA) in adult patients with suspected or proven severe sepsis after cardiac surgery
  
  
  METHODS
  Blood samples taken from 81 patients immediately after the diagnosis of severe sepsis were tested with the EAA. Patients were divided into 3 groups: low (<0.4, n = 20), moderate (0.4-0.59, n = 35) and high (≥0.6, n = 26) EAA levels.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Gram-negative bacteraemia was found in 19/55 (35%) of cases with ЕАА <0.6 and in 11/26 (42%) of cases with higher ЕАА, p = 0.67. Mortality at 28 days in Groups 1, 2 and 3 was 20%, 43% and 54%, respectively. Patients with an EAA higher than 0.65 had a higher 28-day mortality than those with lower EAA values (18/26 - 69% vs. 19/55 - 34.5%; p = 0.0072). ROC analysis for the prediction of 28-day mortality revealed an AUC for APACHE II scores, EAA and PCT of 0.81, 0.73 and 0.66, respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  EАА might be useful for recognising patients who have an increased risk of mortality due to severe sepsis.
authors.affiliation: Bourakovsky Institute of Cardiac Surgery, Bakoulev Scientific Centre for Cardiovascular Surgery, Moscow, Russia. da_popov@inbox.ru.
authors.forename: Michail
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yaroustovsky
authors.forename: Marina
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Plyushch
authors.forename: Dmitry
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Popov
authors.forename: Natalia
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Samsonova
authors.forename: Marina
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Abramyan
authors.forename: Zakhar
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Popok
authors.forename: Nickolay
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Krotenko