Metabolic syndrome may increase mortality in elderly with acute respiratory distress syndrome, suggests study

A new study by Xiao Xu and team found that in older individuals with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), metabolic syndrome (MetS) was linked to increased risks of 28-day and 90-day all-cause mortality. The findings of this study were published in the journal of BMC Diabetology & Metabolic Syndrome.

Acute respiratory distress syndrome is an acute, widespread, inflammatory lung damage that is typified by refractory hypoxemia and non-cardiogenic pulmonary edema. A worldwide observational research found that the hospital mortality rates for patients with mild, moderate, and severe ARDS were 34.9%, 40.3%, and 46.1%, respectively, and that the frequency of ARDS following intensive care unit (ICU) admission was 10.4%.

Metabolic syndrome affects people all over the world and is caused by a multitude of interrelated variables that result in abnormalities related to metabolism, anthropometry, and hemodynamics. MetS patients had a predisposition for several malignancies and 2.21 times higher cardiovascular mortality, which significantly increased the financial burden on both the patients and their families. The current investigation attempts to assess the relationship between MetS and overall mortality in senior ARDS patients.

The MetS group and the non-MetS group comprised elderly ARDS patients (≥ 65 years) who were enrolled from our hospital between January 2018 and July 2023. The results showed the whole population's 28-day and 90-day all-cause death rates as well as two age-stratified subgroups (65 to 75 years and > 75 years). To evaluate the relationship between MetS and all-cause mortality after adjusting for possible confounding variables, multivariate Cox regression was used.

A total of 946 patients were split up into two groups as the non-MetS group (n = 536) and the MetS group (n = 410). In both the overall population and all subgroups, the 28-day and 90-day all-cause death rates of the MetS group were considerably greater than the individuals of the non-MetS group (all P < 0.01).

MetS was substantially linked to a greater risk of 90-day all-cause death in both the overall population and the patient subgroups of the participants who were 65 to 75 years old and  over75 years old, according to multivariate Cox regression. Furthermore, the addition of every MetS criterion, ranging from 0 to 1, to 2, 3, and 4 of 4 criteria, resulted in a substantial increase in the all-cause death rates after 28 and 90 days. Overall, in senior ARDS patients, MetS was linked to an increased risk of 28-day and 90-day all-cause death.

Source:

Xu, X., Xu, H., Li, M., Yan, S., & Chen, H. (2024). Metabolic syndrome is associated with mortality in elderly patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome. In Diabetology & Metabolic Syndrome (Vol. 16, Issue 1). Springer Science and Business Media LLC. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13098-024-01420-x