title: Admission white blood cell count predicts short-term clinical outcomes in patients with uncomplicated Stanford type B acute aortic dissection.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Inflammation has been shown to be related with acute aortic dissection (AAD). The present study aimed to evaluate the association of white blood cell counts (WBCc) on admission with both in-hospital and long-term all-cause mortality in patients with uncomplicated Stanford type B AAD.
  
  
  METHODS
  From 2008 to 2010, a total of 377 consecutive patients with uncomplicated type B AAD were enrolled and then followed up. Clinical data and WBCc on admission were collected. The primary end points were in-hospital death and long-term all-cause death.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The in-hospital death rate was 4.2%, and the long-term all-cause mortality rate was 6.9% during a median follow-up of 18.9 months. WBCc on admission was identified as a risk factor for in-hospital death by univariate Cox regression analysis as both a continuous variable and a categorical variable using a cut off of 11.0 × 109cell/L (allP< 0.05). After adjusting for age, sex and other risk factors, elevated admission WBCc was still a significant predictor for in-hospital death as both a continuous variable [hazard ratio (HR): 1.052, 95% CI: 1.024-1.336,P= 0.002] and a categorical variable using a cut off of 11.0 × 109cell/L (HR: 2.056, 95% CI: 1.673-5.253,P= 0.034). No relationship was observed between WBCc on admission and long-term all-cause death.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results indicate that elevated WBCc upon admission might be used as a predictor for increased risk of in-hospital death in uncomplicated type B AAD. There might be no predictive value of WBCc for the long-term survival of type B AAD.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Cardiovascular Disease, Department of Cardiology, Fuwai Hospital, National Center for Cardiovascular Diseases, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Zhao-Ran
authors.initials: ZR
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Cardiovascular Disease, Department of Cardiology, Fuwai Hospital, National Center for Cardiovascular Diseases, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Bi
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Cardiovascular Disease, Department of Cardiovascular Anesthesiology, Fuwai Hospital, National Center for Cardiovascular Diseases, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Hai-Song
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Cardiovascular Disease, Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Fuwai Hospital, National Center for Cardiovascular Diseases, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Zhen-Hua
authors.initials: ZH
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Cardiovascular Disease, Department of Cardiology, Fuwai Hospital, National Center for Cardiovascular Diseases, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Ru-Tai
authors.initials: RT
authors.lastname: Hui
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Cardiovascular Disease, Department of Cardiology, Fuwai Hospital, National Center for Cardiovascular Diseases, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Yan-Min
authors.initials: YM
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Cardiovascular Disease, Department of Cardiology, Fuwai Hospital, National Center for Cardiovascular Diseases, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Xiao-Han
authors.initials: XH
authors.lastname: Fan
keywords: Acute aortic dissection; In-hospital mortality; Stanford type B; Survival; White blood cell