Background: Sodium bicarbonate Ringer’s solution has been widely used in clinical practice in recent years. There are few clinical studies on the efficacy and safety of this fluid among critically ill patients until now.Method: This retrospective cohort study included critically ill adult patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) of Tongji Hospital from 1 January 2019 to 31 December 2020. By reviewing exclusively the use of either sodium bicarbonate Ringer’s solution or saline for resuscitation or maintenance, the patients were included into two groups, respectively. The primary outcome was the major adverse kidney event within 30 days (MAKE30), including death, new receipt of renal replacement therapy, or persistent renal dysfunction. Safety outcomes were focused on arterial blood gas and plasma biochemical alterations, which might potentially be induced by the administration of bicarbonate Ringer’s solution.Result: A total of 662 patients were included in the cohort. Compared to the saline group, the bicarbonate Ringer’s group had a significantly lower rate of the new receipt of renal replacement therapy [adjusted odds ratio (OR) = 0.591, 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.406 to 0.861; p = 0.006]. There was no significant difference between the two groups in 30-day mortality, final creatinine level ≥200% of baseline, and major adverse kidney event within 30 days. In subgroup analysis, the incidence of MAKE30 was higher in the bicarbonate Ringer’s group than that of the saline group among patients with cardiovascular disease. The patients in the bicarbonate Ringer’s group had a longer length of intensive care unit stay than patients in the saline group, but their new renal replacement therapy days were shorter. No major alterations were found in arterial blood gas and plasma biochemical during the follow-up period.Conclusion: Compared to saline, sodium bicarbonate Ringer’s solution exhibited a potential renal function protective effect while causing no major alterations in arterial blood gas and plasma biochemistry. However, the application in patients with cardiovascular disease diagnosis at ICU admission should be cautious.

Severe rhabdomyolysis can lead to acute kidney injury (AKI). Previous studies have reported a benefit from continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT) for rhabdomyolysis-associated AKI. Here, we investigated the potential for serum creatine kinase (CK) levels to be used as a marker for CRRT termination in patients with AKI following rhabdomyolysis. We compared different CK levels in patients after CRRT termination and observed their clinical outcomes. We retrospectively collected 86 cases with confirmed rhabdomyolysis-associated AKI, who were receiving CRRT in Tongji Hospital. Patients’ renal functions were assessed within 24 h of intermission, patients with urine output ≥ 1,000 mL and serum creatinine ≤ 265 umol/L were considered for CRRT termination. After termination, 33 patients with a CK > 5,000 U/L were included in an experimental group, and 53 patients with a CK < 5,000 U/L were included in a control group. Clinical outcomes were compared between the two groups. Higher CK levels, as well as worse renal functions, predicted the necessity of CRRT. After CRRT termination, the in-hospital mortality ( p = 0.389) and Multiple Organ Dysfunction Syndrome (MODS) incidence ( p = 0.064) were similar between the two groups, while the experimental group showed a significantly shorter in-hospital length of stay ( p = 0.026) and Intensive Care Unit (ICU) length of stay ( p = 0.038). CRRT termination may be independent of CK levels for patients with rhabdomyolysis-associated AKI, and this is contingent on their renal functions having recovered to an appropriate level.

Objective: To explore the efficacy of anticoagulation in improving outcomes and safety of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients in subgroups identified by clinical-based stratification and unsupervised machine learning.Methods: This single-center retrospective cohort study unselectively reviewed 2,272 patients with COVID-19 admitted to the Tongji Hospital between Jan 25 and Mar 23, 2020. The association between AC treatment and outcomes was investigated in the propensity score (PS) matched cohort and the full cohort by inverse probability of treatment weighting (IPTW) analysis. Subgroup analysis, identified by clinical-based stratification or unsupervised machine learning, was used to identify sub-phenotypes with meaningful clinical features and the target patients benefiting most from AC.Results: AC treatment was associated with lower in-hospital death risk either in the PS matched cohort or by IPTW analysis in the full cohort. A higher incidence of clinically relevant non-major bleeding (CRNMB) was observed in the AC group, but not major bleeding. Clinical subgroup analysis showed that, at admission, severe cases of COVID-19 clinical classification, mild acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) cases, and patients with a D-dimer level ≥0.5 μg/mL, may benefit from AC. During the hospital stay, critical cases and severe ARDS cases may benefit from AC. Unsupervised machine learning analysis established a four-class clustering model. Clusters 1 and 2 were non-critical cases and might not benefit from AC, while clusters 3 and 4 were critical patients. Patients in cluster 3 might benefit from AC with no increase in bleeding events. While patients in cluster 4, who were characterized by multiple organ dysfunction (neurologic, circulation, coagulation, kidney and liver dysfunction) and elevated inflammation biomarkers, did not benefit from AC.Conclusions: AC treatment was associated with lower in-hospital death risk, especially in critically ill COVID-19 patients. Unsupervised learning analysis revealed that the most critically ill patients with multiple organ dysfunction and excessive inflammation might not benefit from AC. More attention should be paid to bleeding events (especially CRNMB) when using AC.