Purpose: Improvements in survival after septic shock will most likely rely on our capacity to manage individualized therapies based on the measurement of rapidly accessible biomarkers. As the early phase of septic shock is dominated by severe alterations of the cardiovascular system, the predictive value for mortality of pro-vasopressin (pro-AVP) and pro-adrenomedullin (pro-ADM), two vasoactive pro-hormones, was assessed.
Methods: In 99 consecutive patients, pro-hormone concentrations were measured (immunoluminometric assay) three times within the first week after the onset of septic shock.
Results: Pro-AVP and pro-ADM concentrations were significantly increased in non-survivors in comparison with survivors and were significantly associated with mortality after both univariate and multivariate analysis. Importantly, when assessed as a pair, pro-ADM and pro-AVP were even more informative.
Conclusions: Both Pro-ADM and pro-AVP appear to be good biomarkers for the prediction of 28-day mortality after septic shock. However, their association in a single variable tends to improve their predictive capacity.