title: Serum Uric Acid Level in Relation to Severity of the Disease and Mortality of Critically Ill Patients.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This study was conducted to evaluate the validity of serum uric acid (UA) in prediction of mortality among patients in the emergency department.
  
  
  METHODS
  This is a prospective cohort study which was conducted during 2014. In this study, 120 critically ill patients who required Intensive Care Unit care services were included. For evaluation of severity of the disease, mortality in emergency department score (MEDS) in the first 24 h of admission, the requirement of using mechanical ventilation, taking vasopressor during the hospitalization time and severity of the disease based on MEDS score were measured. The patients were divided into two groups: Patients with serum UA level lower than 7.3 mg/dl and patients with serum UA level of equal or more than 7.3 mg/dl. For comparison of the mortality rate in groups, Chi-square and fisher exact tests were applied.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In patients, who needed mechanical ventilation, average of serum UA was 7.82 ± 2.82; however, in the patients who did not need mechanical ventilation this amount was 6.16 ± 2.7, a difference was statically significant. We found a statically meaningful difference between serum UA level with requiring mechanical ventilation and the predictive level of UA 6.95 ± 0.73 (F= 8.52;P≤ 0.004). In the evaluation of MEDS, most patients with serum UA levels lower than 7.3 mg/dl had lower MEDS points (on average 4.6 ± 3.21) in compared to patients with serum UA level higher than 7.3 mg/dl (on average 12 ± 2.99). This difference was found to be statistically significant which indicates the patients whose serum UA was 7.3 mg/dl or higher, were at higher risk of mortality.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The serum UA level in the 1stday of hospitalization of a critically ill patient is not an independent indicative factor in relation to mortality. High level of UA reveals critical status of the patient and requires mechanical ventilation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari, Iran.
authors.forename: Hamed
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Aminiahidashti
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari, Iran.
authors.forename: Farzad
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Bozorgi
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari, Iran.
authors.forename: Seyed Jaber
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Mousavi
authors.affiliation: Department of Nephrology, Faculty of Medicine, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari, Iran.
authors.forename: Omid
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Sedighi
authors.affiliation: Educations and Development Center (EDC), Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari, Iran.
authors.forename: Ali Morad Heidari
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Gorji
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari, Iran.
authors.forename: Hale
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Rashidian
keywords: Critical ill patients; mortality; serum uric acid