Markers of increased risk of death in polytrauma patients with associated chest trauma

Abstract

Introduction. Polytrauma patients represent one of the most difficult pathology. Therefore, developing methods of assessing the risk of death in these patients is a continuous challenge for physicians. The aim of the study was to evaluate the levels of creatine kinase isoenzyme MB (CK-MB) and troponin, as markers of increased risk of death in the first 24 hours after admission, in polytrauma patients with associated chest trauma. Material and methods. The study included 33 polytrauma patients treated in the Emergency Department of the County Clinical Emergency Hospital Constanta, Romania, between 2014-2017. In all these patients, clinical evaluation and paraclinical investigations have been performed, including measurements of CK-MB levels. The results of the study suggest that CK-MB does not offer additional information for the risk of death in these patients, while in the case of troponin, higher values were observed in patients that didn’t survive after 24 hours. Conclusions. The results of our study suggest that troponin values may be useful in identifying the increased risk of death in polytrauma patients.

Keywords

• creatine kinase-MB
• troponin
• polytrauma
• thoracic trauma