• Mitchell J Cohen, Michel Carles, Karim Brohi, Carolyn S Calfee, Pamela Rahn, Mariah S Call, Brian B Chesebro, Michael A West, and Jean-François Pittet.
• . Department of Surgery, Ward 3A, San Francisco General Hospital, 1001 Potrero Avenue, Room 3C-38, San Francisco, CA 94110, USA. mcohen@sfghsurg.ucsf.edu
• J Trauma. 2010 Jun 1;68(6):1273-8.

BackgroundThe receptor for advanced glycation endproducts (RAGE) recognizes a variety of ligands that play an important role in the posttraumatic inflammatory response. However, whether soluble RAGE (sRAGE) is released early after trauma hemorrhage in humans and whether such a release is associated with the development of an inflammatory response and coagulopathy is not known and therefore constitutes the aim of this study.MethodsOne hundred sixty-eight patients were studied as part of a prospective cohort study of severe trauma patients admitted to a single Level I Trauma center. Blood was drawn within 10 minutes of arrival to the emergency department before the administration of any fluid resuscitation. sRAGE, tumor necrosis factor-alpha, interleukin-6, von Willebrand factor, angiopoietin-2, prothrombin time, prothrombin fragments 1 + 2, soluble thrombomodulin, protein C, plasminogen activator inhibitor-1, and d-dimers (fibrin degradation products) were measured using standard techniques. Base deficit was used as a measure of tissue hypoperfusion. Measurements were compared with outcome measures obtained from the electronic medical record and trauma registry.ResultsPlasma levels of sRAGE were increased within 30 minutes after severe trauma in humans and correlated with the severity of injury, early posttraumatic coagulopathy and hyperfibrinolysis, and endothelial cell activation (angiopoietin-1 and complement). Furthermore, we found that there was a significant relationship between plasma levels of sRAGE and the development of acute renal failure. This relationship was not quite significant for patients who developed acute lung injury (p = 0.11), although patients with <26 ventilator-free days had significantly higher plasma levels of sRAGE than those with >26 ventilator-free days. Finally, there was no relationship between plasma levels of sRAGE and mortality rate in trauma patients.ConclusionThe results of this study demonstrate that the release of sRAGE in the bloodstream of trauma patients requires severe injury and is associated with coagulation abnormalities and endothelial cell and complement activation.

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