Association Between Macroscopic Tongue Ischemia and Enterocyte Injury and Poor Outcome in Patients With Septic Shock: A Preliminary Observational Study

In this study, 57 adults with septic shock on mechanical ventilators were enrolled. Macroscopic tongue ischemia upon intensive care unit (ICU) admission was assessed by two independent intensivists. We used intestinal fatty-acid binding protein (I-FABP) as a biomarker of enterocyte injury and evaluated the association with tongue ischemia. Demographic variables, risk factor data, and 28-day mortality information were also collected. Compared with patients with normal tongues (n = 45), those with ischemic tongues (n = 12) had a significantly higher Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II score (29.0 [25.0–34.0] vs. 36.5 [30.5–44.5], P = 0.017), lactate level (2.8 [2.0–5.0] vs. 9.3 [4.5–10.6], P = 0.002), and I-FABP level (1.9 [0.8–4.0] vs. 54.4 [19.5–159.3], P 
Source: Shock - Category: Emergency Medicine Tags: Clinical Science Aspects Source Type: research