Clinical significance of lactate-to-albumin ratio in patients with influenza A virus-induced acute respiratory distress syndrome: a single-center retrospective study

Abstract

Abstract Background The lactate-to-albumin ratio (LAR) is predictive of disease prognosis in some cases. However, the clinical significance of LAR in patients with influenza A virus-induced acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) has yet to be explored. This study aims to investigate whether LAR can be used as a predictor of influenza A virus-induced ARDS. Methods In this single-center retrospective study, we enrolled 105 patients with influenza A virus pneumonia into the study and divided the patients into an ARDS group (74 patients) and a non-ARDS group (31 patients) during hospitalization. Clinical characteristics and laboratory data were collected within 24 h after admission. We explored the risk factors for ARDS using logistic regression analysis. The predictive performance of potential risk factors for ARDS and ARDS-associated complications were evaluated by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves, and Pearson’s correlation analysis was used to evaluate the correlations between risk factors and clinical and laboratory variables. Results LAR was an independent predictor for the development of ARDS in patients with influenza A virus pneumonia and was significantly predictive for ARDS. LAR’s area under the curve (AUC) was higher than that of lactate and albumin alone; its AUC was 0.878, with a sensitivity of 71.6% and a specificity of 96.8%. The optimal ROC threshold for distinguishing ARDS from non-ARDS cases was 44.81 × 10− 3. Correlation analysis indicated that LAR was positively associated with duration of invasive ventilation, and APACHE II and SOFA scores in ARDS patients but was negatively associated with PaO2/FiO2 (p < 0.001). Subsequent ROC curve analysis determined that LAR was a robust predictor for the 14-day invasive ventilation (AUC = 0.924), septic shock (AUC = 0.860), and hepatic injury (AUC = 0.905) in hospitalized ARDS patients. It also showed a promising predictive value for 28-day mortality (AUC = 0.881). Conclusion LAR strongly predicted ARDS development in patients with influenza A virus pneumonia. It showed a significant correlation with disease severity and provided promising predictive efficiency for extrapulmonary complications and 28-day mortality in patients with influenza A virus-induced ARDS.

Keywords

• Lactate-to-albumin ratio
• Influenza A virus
• Acute respiratory distress syndrome