2025, Vol. 8, Issue 4, Part A

Background: To guide treatment when someone has septic shock or severe sepsis, it's important to have reliable early signs of how serious the condition is. This study aimed to find out if the lactate/albumin ratio (LAR) is a better sign of the chances of death and other important health outcomes compared to lactate, albumin, and the Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II (APACHE II) score.

Patients and Methods: One hundred patients who had septic shock or severe sepsis took part in this prospective observational research. Twenty-four hours after they were admitted, the doctors checked their lactate levels, albumin, LAR, and APACHE II score. The main thing they wanted to know was whether the patients died while in the hospital.

Results: In addition to being older (p=0.032), non-survivors had lower albumin (p=0.004), greater admission lactate (p<0.001), LAR (p<0.001), and APACHE II (p<0.001). LAR correlated with LOS (?=0.508, p<0.001) and with APACHE II (?=0.771, p<0.001). LAR best predicted mortality (AUC 0.911; cut-off 1.21; sensitivity 81.1%; specificity 85.1%), surpassing APACHE II (AUC 0.718), lactate (0.692), and albumin (0.669). For MV and MODS, LAR again performed best (AUC 0.869; cut-off 1.055; sensitivity 85.9%; specificity 80.6%). Non-survivors had longer LOS (p<0.001) and higher rates of MV and MODS (p<0.001).

Conclusion: When it comes to mortality, MV, MODS, and LOS, LAR is a straightforward, easily accessible, and better predictive biomarker in severe sepsis/septic shock than lactate, albumin, and APACHE II.