• Dan Wen, Hai-ying Wu, Xiong-jing Jiang, Hui-min Zhang, Xian-liang Zhou, Jian-jun Li, and Ru-tai Hui.
• Hypertension Division, Fu Wai Hospital & Cardiovascular Institute, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, Beijing 100037, China.
• Chin. Med. J. 2011 Sep 1; 124 (17): 267826822678-82.

BackgroundA few recent studies have reported that inflammation is associated with the prognosis of acute aortic dissection (AD). There is, however, no systemic investigation regarding the role of plasma C-reactive protein (CRP) and white blood cell (WBC) levels in predicting in-hospital clinical events of acute type A AD.MethodsThe levels of high-sensitivity CRP and WBC counts were systemically determined after admission in 36 patients with acute type A AD. The variations of plasma CRP and WBC levels in different time windows (admission, 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8 days) in patients with acute type A AD were analyzed between patients with events and without events.ResultsDuring hospitalization, five patients died, and increased levels of CRP and WBC were found in patients died with acute type A AD compared with patients survived (P < 0.01, respectively). Medical treatment may significantly decrease inflammatory response in survived patients with acute type A AD. Additionally, patients with complication of pleural effusion showed higher CRP and WBC levels (P = 0.046, P = 0.018, respectively). Lower WBC levels were found in survived patients treated medically (P = 0.001). Moreover, mean CRP and WBC levels had positive correlations with aortic diameter (r = 0.364, P = 0.000; r = 0.333, P = 0.000, respectively) and age (r = 0.270, P = 0.000, respectively), while negative correlations with the time from onset of symptoms to hospital admission (r = -0.229, P = 0.000, r = -0.200, P = 0.002, respectively). Univariate analysis showed that age ≥ 65 years, CRP ≥ 12.05 mg/L, WBC ≥ 12.16 × 10(9)/L, aortic diameter ≥ 48 mm, pleural effusion and diastolic blood pressure ≥ 105 mmHg were associated with hospital mortality. While CRP ≥ 12.05 mg/L, WBC ≥ 12.16 × 10(9)/L, aortic diameter ≥ 48 mm were strongly associated with hospital mortality in multiple Logistic regression analysis.ConclusionsThe results suggested that CRP and WBC were preferred markers for predicting the clinical events in patients with acute type A AD, especially death during hospitalization. Therefore, further study enrolling larger cohort, prospective study would be warranted.

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