Abstract
The role of disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) has not been extensively studied in patients with sepsis. A prospective study was performed in a single university hospital. The incidences of DIC at day 1 (<24 hours post-sepsis diagnosis) and day 3 (48 to 72 hours) were investigated among patients with sepsis. The International Society of Thrombosis and Haemostasis criteria for DIC were used. Among 381 patients initially screened, 219 were enrolled in this study and the incidences of overt DIC were 27.9% and 30.1% on day 1 and day 3, respectively. Patients with pneumonia had a lower incidence of DIC on day 1, but a higher hospital mortality rate compared to those with non-pneumonia sepsis. In multivariate models, although day 1 and day 3 DIC scores were not associated with hospital mortality after adjusting for existing severity scores, the change in DIC scores (odds ratio 1.862; 95% confidence interval 1.061 to 3.266) exhibited a significant association. Day 3 DIC scores were more accurate in predicting hospital mortality than day 1 DIC scores (P <0.001), especially in patients with non-pneumonia sepsis. However, DIC scores did not give additional discriminative power to the existing prognostic scores in predicting mortality of patients with sepsis. In conclusion, the change in DIC score was significantly associated with hospital mortality. Patients with pneumonia sepsis had a lower incidence of DIC on day 1, despite their higher disease severity and mortality rate, compared to those with other sources of sepsis.