TY - JOUR A1 - de Haan, Jacco J. A1 - Lubbers, Tim A1 - Derikx, Joep P. A1 - Relja, Borna A1 - Henrich, Dirk A1 - Greve, Jan-Willem A1 - Marzi, Ingo A1 - Buurman, Wim A. T1 - Rapid development of intestinal cell damage following severe trauma : a prospective observational cohort study T2 - Critical care N2 - Introduction Loss of intestinal integrity has been implicated as an important contributor to the development of excessive inflammation following severe trauma. Thus far, clinical data concerning the occurrence and significance of intestinal damage after trauma remain scarce. This study investigates whether early intestinal epithelial cell damage occurs in trauma patients and, if present, whether such cell injury is related to shock, injury severity and the subsequent inflammatory response. Methods Prospective observational cohort study in 96 adult trauma patients. Upon arrival at the emergency room (ER) plasma levels of intestinal fatty acid binding protein (i-FABP), a specific marker for damage of differentiated enterocytes, were measured. Factors that potentially influence the development of intestinal cell damage after trauma were determined, including the presence of shock and the extent of abdominal trauma and general injury severity. Furthermore, early plasma levels of i-FABP were related to inflammatory markers interleukin-6 (IL-6), procalcitonin (PCT) and C-reactive protein (CRP). Results Upon arrival at the ER, plasma i-FABP levels were increased compared with healthy volunteers, especially in the presence of shock (P < 0.01). The elevation of i-FABP was related to the extent of abdominal trauma as well as general injury severity (P < 0.05). Circulatory i-FABP concentrations at ER correlated positively with IL-6 and PCT levels at the first day (r2 = 0.19; P < 0.01 and r2 = 0.36; P < 0.001 respectively) and CRP concentrations at the second day after trauma (r2 = 0.25; P < 0.01). Conclusions This study reveals early presence of intestinal epithelial cell damage in trauma patients. The extent of intestinal damage is associated with the presence of shock and injury severity. Early intestinal damage precedes and is related to the subsequent developing inflammatory response. Y1 - 2009 UR - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/6726 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30-64370 SN - 1574-4280 SN - 1875-7081 N1 - © 2009 de haan et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. VL - 13 IS - 3, Art. R86 SP - 1 EP - 7 PB - Bohn Stafleu Van Loghum CY - Houten ER -