Adult patients admitted to the intensive care unit with severe sepsis or septic shock were consecutively included. Brachial artery FMD was measured upon admission, after 24 and 72 hours. A group of apparently healthy subjects paired for sex and age was used as controls. Patients were followed up to discharge or death.
We studied 42 patients (mean age, 51 卤 19 years) with sepsis predominantly of abdominal or respiratory etiology (75%). Acute Physiology And Chronic Health Evaluation II risk score was 23 卤 7, and intrahospital mortality rate was 33%. Flow-mediated vasodilation in septic patients was significantly lower than in healthy controls (1.5 卤 7%vs 6 卤 4%, P < .001). Most of the nonsurvivors (86%) showed a decline in sequential FMD analyses, whereas only 43%of survivors showed a reduction of FMD (P = .01). In nonsurvivors, FMD was significantly lower 72 hours after sepsis onset (鈭?.3%卤 10%vs 5.2%卤 4%; P < .05; time-group interaction P value = .03).
Brachial FMD is altered in septic patients with hemodynamic instability, and its deterioration may be an early marker of unfavorable prognosis.