Background: Rapidly available biomarkers is needed to predict the disease severity and finally outcome. Arginine vasopressin (AVP) is released from the posterior pituitary gland following different stimuli such as hypotension, hypoxia, hyper osmolarity, acidosis and infections and it is claimed to be a sensitive marker in these situations. Measurement of AVP levels has limitations due to its short half-life and instability. Copeptin is a more stable peptide derived from a larger precursor (pre-pro AVP) and its concentrations mirror that of AVP in individual stress response. In critically ill patients, needing ICU admission as respiratory failure, copeptin values increase significantly with the severity of the disease.
The aim was to study the usefulness of plasma copeptin as a predictor of prognosis of respiratory failure patients admitted in the ICU
Method: study was carried out on 45 subjects at Benha University Hospital ICU and chest department. 30 patients admitted at ICU with respiratory failure due to different chest diseases and 15 other controls not admitted to ICU. A new sandwich immunoluminometric assay was used for detection of plasma copeptin concenteration. Patients had been followed up in the ICU till the end point: Patient improved and discharged to the chest department-Patient die-. Or after 1 month on ventilator.
Results: A statistically significant positive correlation between copeptin level and outcome of patients was found, as its levels were markedly higher in non survivors than in survivors (P |
