Effect of low-dose glucocorticoid on corticosteroid insufficient patients with acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Objective To investigate the effect of low-dose glucocorticoid on prognosis of critical illness-related corticosteroid insufficient (CIRCI) patients with acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (AECOPD).Methods A total of 385 eligible patients met the criteria of AECOPD were admitted from January 2010 to December 2012.The AECOPD patients co-morbid with CIRCI screened by an adrenal corticotrophic hormone test within 12 hours after admission were randomly divided into treatment group (n =32) and control group (n =31) for prospective,randomized (random number) and controlled clinical study.Hydrocortison (150mg/d) for treatment group or normal saline instead for control group was injected intravenously for 7 days.The 28-day mortality,shock-free days,length of ICU stay within 28 days and ventilator-free days were evaluated.And the markers of inflammation C-reactive protein,tumor necrosis factor-α,interleukin 6 and procalcitonin were measured before and 7 days after treatment.The variables were analyzed by Student' s t-test,non-parametric statistical test,Chi-square test or KaplanMeier test with SPSS 18.0 statistic software.P ＜ 0.05 was considered statistically significant.Results A cohort of 385 patients with AECOPD was screened,and the prevalence rate of CIRCI was 16.4％.The shock rate was higher in the AECOPD patients co-morbid with CIRCI than that in the AECOPD patients without CIRCI (23.8％ vs 8.7％,P ＜0.01).Compared with the control group,the 28-day mortality was significantly lower in treatment group (2/32 vs 8/31,P ＜ 0.05),and shock-free days within 28 days longer in the treatment group (18.2 ± 9.5 vs 25.8 ± 4.1,P ＜ 0.05).However,there was no difference in the shock rate,days of ICU stay and ventilator-free days between the two groups.After treatment,the levels of infection markers were decreased and obviously lower than those in control group (P ＜ 0.01),such as Creactive protein (13.2 ± 5.5 mg/L vs 8.3 ± 3.1 mg/L for control group; 13.5 ± 5.9 mg/L vs 5.1 ± 2.3mg/L for treatment group),tumor necrosis factor-α (26.1 ± 16.2 μg/L vs 17.5 ± 11.7 μg/L for control group ; 25.0 ± 14.8 μg/L vs 10.4 ± 7.8 μg/L for treatment group) and procalcitonin [3.88 (0.25,8.5) μg/L vs 2.03 (0.15,5.1) μg/L for control group; 3.77 (0.21,8.0) μg/L vs 1.26 (0.10,3.2) μg/L for treatment group],furthermore,the levels of infection markers were decrease more obviously in the treatment group than those in the control group (P ＜ 0.01).Conclusions There was high prevalence rate of CIRCI in the patients with AECOPD in the department of critical medicine,and low-dose glucocorticoid reduced 28-day mortality,shock days and markers of infection and inflammation. Key words: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease;  Acute exacerbation glucocorticoid;  Critical illness ;  Corticosteroid insufficiency;  Prevalence rate;  Prognosis ;  Inflammation