Correlation between Plasma D-Dimer Level and Severity and Prognosis in Patients Admitted at Emergency Department with Trauma.

BACKGROUND

To investigate the correlation between plasma D-dimer level and severity and prognosis of patients admitted to the emergency department with trauma.

METHODS

A total of 168 trauma patients admitted to the department of emergency surgery of Shengzhou People's Hospital were included in this study. The general information was collected, and the plasma D-dimer level was measured within 24 hours after admission. Patients were divided into the mild traumatic group (ISS ≤ 16 points), the moderate traumatic group (16 < ISS ≤ 25 points), and the severe traumatic group (ISS > 25 points) according to the Injury Severity Score (ISS) evaluation. According to the results from a 28-day follow-up, plasma D-dimer levels were compared between the survival group and the death group. The correlation between plasma D-dimer levels and severity of trauma patients admitted to the emergency department (according to the ISS) was analyzed. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve evaluated the predictive value of plasma D-dimer levels for prognosis in patients admitted to the emergency department with trauma.

RESULTS

Plasma D-dimer levels successively increased from the mild traumatic group (2.51 ± 0.46 mg/L), the moderate traumatic group (4.09 ± 1.00 mg/L) to the severe traumatic group (6.58 ± 1.14 mg/L) (F = 0.659, p < 0.05). Plasma D-dimer levels were significantly and positively correlated with ISSs (r = 0.720, p < 0.001). The plasma D-dimer level in the survival group (3.72 ± 1.26 mg/L) was significantly lower than that in the death group (5.19 ± 0.87 mg/L) (t = 6.251, p < 0.001). According to the Youden index, the optimal cutoff value of plasma D-dimer was 4.00 mg/L, the AUC was 0.849, the standard error was 0.034, the 95% CI was 0.783 - 0.915, the sensitivity was 0.938, and the specificity was 0.603.

CONCLUSIONS

Plasma D-dimer levels were positively correlated with the severity of patients with trauma admitted to the department of emergency surgery and can predict poor prognosis.