Acute Mesenteric Ischemia in Critically Ill Patients. Possibilities of Laboratory Diagnostics. Systematic Literature Review and Meta-Analysis

Abstract

Background Acute mesenteric ischemia (ami) is diagnosed in 1 case per 5,000–15,000 operations associated with elective abdominal surgical intervention and in 1 case of 1,000 emergency laparotomies associated with the acute abdomen clinical features. Non-occlusive disorders account for 20-30% of all cases of ami. The absence of pathognomonic symptoms and syndromes, as well as specific laboratory markers of ami, determines significant difficulties in the early diagnosis of this disease, especially in critically ill patients.Aim of study To identify the main laboratory markers of acute mesenteric ischemia applicable in the resuscitation and intensive care unit (ricu) based on a systematic literature review.Material and methods A systematic search and selection of publications was carried out in march-april 2021 in accordance with the prisma system checklist (prisma, preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyzes). The search used two databases: the cochrane library of systematic reviews (https://www.cochranelibrary.com) and the pubmed bibliographic database (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov). Key terms in the search parameters were: acute mesenteric ischemia; bowel necrosis predictors; laboratory diagnostics of mesenteric ischemia. Search parameters were limited to the year of publication (not later than 2015). The main results of the review included patients with an established diagnosis of acute mesenteric ischemia, indicating the level of laboratory parameters (ph of mixed venous blood, lactate, d-dimer, white blood count, mpv, i-fabp, serum marker and alpha-glutathione-s-transferase, indicators of the coagulation and hemostasis). Case reports and editorial letters were excluded from the search.Results The threshold value for serum l-lactate ranged from 1.05 mmol/l to 5.6 mmol/l. The sensitivity of serum lactate for the diagnosis of ami ranged from 34.7% (95% ci: 0.82–91.64%) to 89.51% (95.4% ci: 75.12–94.28%), and the specificity ranged from 47.3% (94.7% ci: 26.54–67.98%) to 94.5% (93.2% ci: 75.44–96.85%). The threshold level of d-dimer varied from 0.58 nmol/l to 7.84 nmol/l. The sensitivity of blood d-dimer for the diagnosis of ami was 72.6% (94% ci: 56.1–92.4%) to 99.7% (94% ci: 69.15–100%); the specificity ranged from 69% (95% ci: 7.41–33.63%) to 97.89% (95% ci: 90.42–98.1%). Parameters such as transaminases (ast, alt), mpv, ldh, d-lactate, serum amylase were not included in the review due to the lack of a sufficient number of studies.Conclusion Today, there is no highly specific laboratory marker that could be considered the “gold standard” in the laboratory diagnosis of acute mesenteric ischemia. The most promising in predicting ami are serum levels of l-lactate and d-dimer.