Predictive value of the systemic immune inflammation (SII) index for stroke-associated pneumonia

To investigate the predictive value of the systemic immune inflammation (SII) index on the occurrence of stroke-associated pneumonia (SAP) in patients with acute stroke.

Data of patients with or without a previous history of pulmonary who visited the First Affiliated Hospital of Kunming Medical University within 24 h of the onset of stroke were collected between January 2017 and December 2019. Patient's demographic data, stroke type, past medical history, National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale score, Glasgow Coma score, and laboratory tests were collected. Logistic regression models and receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curves were used to investigate the predictive value of SII for the development of SAP in patients with stroke.

We included 395 patients with acute stroke, with a mean age of 63.89 ± 13.42 years, of whom 340 (86.1%) had ischemic stroke, and 55 (13.9%) had hemorrhagic stroke. Out of 395, 113 (28.6%) had SAP and 282 (71.4%) did not, and the SII level in the SAP group was higher than that of the non-SAP group (p < .05). Logistic regression analysis of patients with stroke showed that higher SII was a risk factor for SAP in patients with stroke (per 100 units, HR = 1.081, 95% CI: 1.035-1.130, p < .001), and tertile grouping of SII showed that the risk of SAP was 5.059 times higher in the SIIQ3 group than in the SIIQ1 group (95% CI: 2.061-12.418, p < .001). ROC curve analysis indicated that the SII index had predictive value for the occurrence of SAP in patients with stroke, with an area under the curve of 0.752 (95% CI: 0.698-0.806). When the cutoff value was 861.01, the SII predicted SAP in patients with stroke with a sensitivity of 61.9% and a specificity of 76.2%.

Higher SII is an independent risk factor for the development of SAP in patients with stroke and has some predictive value for the development of SAP.