[The relationships between oxygenation index and prognosis in acute respiratory failure patients treated by invasive...

To investigate the effect of oxygenation index (PaO(2)/FiO(2)) on patients' prognosis through comparative analyzing the monitoring indicators of acute respiratory failure patients treated by invasive mechanical ventilation.

Data from 91 acute respiratory failure patients treated by invasive mechanical ventilation in respiration intensive care unit (ICU) of the General Hospital of PLA of Lanzhou from November 2006 to August 2011 were retrospectively analyzed. Patients were divided into survival group (n=55) and death group (n=36) by the outcome, the critical severity scores of the diseases and changes in blood gas analysis during ventilation were compared, and their correlation with prognosis were analyzed.

There were no significant differences in acute physiology and chronic health evaluationIII (APACHEIII) score, multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS) score, acute lung injury (ALI) score between survival and death group before ventilation (62.77±22.92 vs. 74.62±25.77, 6.46±2.45 vs. 6.62±3.03, 1.90±0.57 vs. 2.10±0.73, all P>0.05). There was no significant difference in PaO(2)/FiO(2) between survival and death group on the first day of mechanical ventilation (132.18±67.29 mm Hg vs. 139.24±78.36 mm Hg, P>0.05). PaO(2)/FiO(2) in survival group were significantly higher than that in death group on the 3 days and 7 days of mechanical ventilation (3 days: 205.47±74.71 mm Hg vs. 149.76±70.38 mm Hg, 7 days: 225.37±67.20 mm Hg vs. 120.94±85.58 mm Hg, P<0.05 and P<0.01).

The present study demonstrated that the level of PaO(2)/FiO(2) is related with the prognosis of acute respiratory failure patients treated by invasive mechanical ventilation. Continuously monitoring the changes in PaO(2)/FiO(2) can be used as an important reference index to evaluate the prognosis of critical patients.