A widened pulse pressure: a potential valuable prognostic indicator of mortality in patients with sepsis

Sepsis is one of the leading causes of death in the United States and the most common cause of death among critically ill patients in non-coronary intensive care units. Previous studies have showed pulse pressure (PP) to be a predictor of fluid responsiveness in patients with sepsis. Additionally, previous studies have correlated PP to cardiovascular risk factors and increase in mortality in end-stage renal disease patients.

To determine the correlation between PP and mortality in patients with sepsis.

A retrospective review was conducted on 5,003 patients admitted with the diagnosis of sepsis using ICD-9 codes during the time period from January 2010 to December 2014 at two community-based hospitals in central Pennsylvania.

Our study findings showed significant decrease in the mortality when the PP was greater than 70 mmHg of patients with sepsis (p-value: 0.0003, odds ratio: 0.67, 95% confidence limit: 0.54-0.83).

Based on our findings, we suggest that PP could be a valuable clinical tool in the early assessment of patients admitted with sepsis and could be used as a prognostic factor to assess and implement management therapy for the patients with sepsis.