Predictive value of the dynamics of absolute lymphocyte counts for 90-day mortality in ICU sepsis patients: a retrospective big data study.

OBJECTIVES:The objective of the study was to assess the clinical predictive value of the dynamics of absolute lymphocyte count (ALC) for 90-day all-cause mortality in sepsis patients in intensive care unit (ICU). DESIGN:Retrospective cohort study using big data. SETTING:This study was conducted using the Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care IV database V.2.0 database. PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOME MEASURES:The primary outcome was 90-day all-cause mortality. PARTICIPANTS:Patients were included if they were diagnosed with sepsis on the first day of ICU admission. Exclusion criteria were ICU stay under 24 hours; the absence of lymphocyte count on the first day; extremely high lymphocyte count (>10×109/L); history of haematolymphatic tumours, bone marrow or solid organ transplants; survival time under 72 hours and previous ICU admissions. The analysis ultimately included 17 329 sepsis patients. RESULTS:The ALC in the non-survivors group was lower on days 1, 3, 5 and 7 after admission (p<0.001). The ALC on day 7 had the highest area under the curve (AUC) value for predicting 90-day mortality. The cut-off value of ALC on day 7 was 1.0×109/L. In the restricted cubic spline plot, after multivariate adjustments, patients with higher lymphocyte counts had a better prognosis. After correction, in the subgroups with Sequential Organ Failure Assessment score ≥6 or age ≥60 years, ALC on day 7 had the lowest HR value (0.79 and 0.81, respectively). On the training and testing set, adding the ALC on day 7 improved all prediction models' AUC and average precision values. CONCLUSIONS:Dynamic changes of ALC are closely associated with 90-day all-cause mortality in sepsis patients. Furthermore, the ALC on day 7 after admission is a better independent predictor of 90-day mortality in sepsis patients, especially in severely ill or young sepsis patients.