Central Hemodynamics and Extravascular Lung Water Index in Varying Degrees of Community-Acquired Pneumonia

Abstract

Objective: to assess the specific features of central hemodynamics (CH), extravascular lung water index (EVLWI), and pulmonary oxygenizing function in patients with different outcomes of treatment for severe communityacquired pneumonia (CAP).Subjects and methods. The retrospective study enrolled 57 patients with CAP. According to its outcome, there were 2 groups: 1) 44 patients (33 men and 11 women), whose disease ended in recovery; 2) 13 patients (8 men and 5 women), whose CAP resulted in a fatal out come. The groups did not differ in age (48.1±2.3 and 55.3±4.1 years) and overall disease severity according to the APACHE II (21.5±0.8 and 25.2±2.1 scores) and SOFA (8.7±0.2 and 9.7±1.0 scores) scales (p<0.05). CAP was more severe in Group 2: 3.5±0.1 and 4.4±0.27 CURB65 scores (p>0.05). All the patients received identical antibiotic therapy. They underwent transpulmonary thermodilution according to the standard procedure. The indicators were daily recorded. The data were statistically processed. A corre lation analysis was made calculating the correlation coefficients (r). The significance of differences was estimated by the Student's ttest or Mann-Whitney test.Results. On day 1 of followup, the patients in both groups were prone to arterial hypotension, had tachycardia, lower or nearnormal central venous pressure (CVP). Group 1 versus Group 2 had higher cardiac index (CI) (2.9±0.2 and 2.1±0.1 l/min/m2 ) and global ejection fraction (GEF) (22.5±1 and 15.8±1.7%) (p<0.05) and lower CVP (4.1±0.2 and 5.6±0.4 mm Hg) (p<0.05). On day 3, Group 2 versus Group 1 had higher CVP (p<0.05) and lower CI, GEF, and some other cardiac pump function indicators. Admission EVLWI was virtually equally elevated in both groups. In Group 1, the indicator decreased later on and approached the normal values at 67 days of treatment. In Group 2, EVLWI remained high and did not virtually decrease. The indicator was ascertained to be inversely correlated with GEF on treatment days 1—2 (r=0.35 to 0.58; p<0.01) and 6—7 (r=0.67 to 0.43; p<0.001).Conclusion. In the first 24 hours of treatment, the patients with the unfavorable course of severe CAP are diag nosed as having signs of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and impaired CH, which can be interpreted as progressive right ventricular dysfunction. The pivotal role of ARDS in the pathogenesis of CH disorders is borne out by the inverse correlation between EVLWI and integral cardiac systolic function indicator and GEF.

Keywords

• community-acquired pneumonia
• central hemodynamics
• transpulmonary thermodilution
• intensive treatment