Diagnosis of Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation in Patients Suffering from Sepsis using the Modified International Society of Thrombosis and Haemostasis Criteria and Japanese Association of Acute Medicine Criteria

Abstract

Introduction: The international task force defines sepsis as ‘life-threatening organ dysfunction caused by a dysregulated host response to infection’. Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation (DIC) is a coagulopathy syndrome that causes microvascular and macrovascular thrombosis and increases the risk of bleeding due to consumptive coagulopathy. Sepsis causes dysfunction in coagulation due to release of inflammatory markers which leads to inappropriate deposition of intravascular fibrin. In order to facilitate the diagnostic process for detecting DIC, the scoring system recommended by International Society of Thrombosis and Haemostasis (ISTH) and Japanese Association of Acute Medicine (JAAM) were used which are based on the global coagulation tests such as the platelet count, Prothrombin time, International Normalised Ratio (INR) and Fibrin Degradation Products (FDPs)/D-dimer. Aim: To determine the prevalence and outcome of DIC in patients suffering from sepsis using ISTH criteria and JAAM criteria. Materials and Methods: A prospective cohort study was carried out from January 2021 to July 2022 in the Haematology Section of Pathology Department of Government Medical College and Hospital, Aurangabad, Maharashtra, India. Hundred patients suffering from clinically suspected sepsis were included in the study. Venous blood was collected from patients in Ethylene Diamine Tetra-acetic Acid (EDTA) and Citrate bulbs. The tests performed were Complete Blood Count (CBC), Prothrombin Time (PT), International Normalised Ratio (INR) and D-Dimer. CBC was performed on Fully-automated three part cell counter. PT, INR, D-Dimer testing was done on fully-automated coagulometer. The above test results were used to diagnose DIC in patients suffering from sepsis using the modified ISTH and JAAM criterias. The results were analysed using Microsoft excel 2019 i.e., Chi-square test was applied for p-value calculation. Results: Out of 100 patients with clinically suspected sepsis 35 patients (35%) suffered from Overt DIC using ISTH criteria and 58 patients (58%) suffered from DIC using JAAM criteria. The total mortality in patients with sepsis in the present study was 40%. The mortality in patients with DIC in sepsis using the ISTH criteria was 26 patients (74.28%) and 37 patients (63.79%) using the JAAM criteria. Conclusion: Coagulation abnormalities are widely prevalent in patients with sepsis and are likely to play a key role in multi-organ dysfunction. Both ISTH and JAAM criteria are good predictors of mortality.

Keywords

• coagulopathy
• comparison
• microvascular thrombosis
• prevalence