• Hyeong Tae Yang, Haejun Yim, Yong Suk Cho, Dohern Kim, Jun Hur, Jong Hyun Kim, Boung Chul Lee, Dong Kook Seo, Hyun Soo Kim, and Wook Chun.
• Department of Surgery, Hangang Sacred Heart Hospital, Hallym University Medical Center, Seoul, Korea.
• J Trauma Acute Care Surg. 2012 Apr 1; 72 (4): 999-1005.

BackgroundWe observed that serum transthyretin (TTR) levels consistently remain low when patients' general conditions are poor, despite adequate nutritional support. We conducted this study to analyze the changes of serum TTR over time from injury in massively-burned patients and verify the validity of prediction by clinical outcomes, which are assessed via serum TTR in the early postburn period.MethodsFrom January 2005 to December 2010, the samples of serum TTR from 471 burn patients (mean % total body surface area [TBSA] burned, 51% ± 20%) were analyzed with time frames from injury retrospectively.ResultsSerum TTR significantly decreased during the period from day 5 to day 10 postinjury in both the survival group (n = 290, mean %TBSA burned, 42.9% ± 14.2%) and nonsurvival group (n = 181, mean %TBSA burned, 64.6% ± 20.8%). However, after this period, the serum TTR constantly increased in the survival group but remained low in nonsurvivors. At all time, the levels of serum TTR obtained from survivors were significantly higher than those of nonsurvivors. The serum TTR had weak correlation with the extent of the burn injury (r = -0.234). Survival rates of the patients increased significantly by the increase of the serum TTR of early postburn period. In multivariable model, age (odds ratio [OR], 1.054; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.043-1.066; p = 0.000), TBSA burned (OR, 1.058; 95% CI, 1.051-1.066; p = 0.000), sex (OR, 0.720; 95% CI, 0.547-0.947; p = 0.019), and serum TTR during early postburn period (OR, 1.05; 95% CI, 0.873-0.972; p = 0.003) were independently associated with mortality.ConclusionsThe serum TTR of early postburn period can be used as a prognostic markers, and low serum TTR can be used as a signal for screening out the patients at risk who need careful assessment and monitoring at an early stage.

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