The role of the lactate/albumin ratio in predicting survival outcomes in patients resuscitated after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest: A preliminary report

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the effect of lactate/albumin (L/A) ratio on survival to discharge in patients who have had out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA). Methods: We analyzed adult patients (aged ≥18 years) who were admitted to our hospital's emergency department (ED) due to OHCA between January 2018 and June 2020 and who achieved return of spontaneous circulation after successful resuscitation. Blood lactate and albumin concentrations were obtained within the first 10 min after admission to the ED. Patients were grouped according to clinical outcomes. The primary outcome was survival until hospital discharge. The groups were then statistically compared. Results: In this study, 235 OHCA patients were analyzed, 42 (17.9%) of whom had survived until discharge. The L/A ratio was higher in the non-survivor group than in the survivor group (2.0 (interquartile range: 1.4–2.8) vs 1.4 (0.9–1.9); P < 0.001). A low L/A ratio was significantly associated with survival at discharge (odds ratio: 2.55; 95% confidence interval (CI): 3.24–11.08; P < 0.001). In the prediction of survival to discharge, the area under the curve (AUC) for the L/A ratio (AUC: 0.823) was higher than that for lactate (AUC: 0.762) or albumin (AUC: 0.722) alone. Moreover, the predictive value of L/A ratio for survival to discharge might significantly improve when the cutoff value is higher than 1.62. Conclusion: The L/A ratio is more valuable than the lactate or albumin levels alone in predicting survival to discharge. Our findings indicate that a combination of these parameters might increase the predictability of survival to discharge in OHCA patients.