ICU sedation, delirium & recovery
Circulating Endothelial Signature: A Biomarker of Delirium Risk and Severity in Postoperative Patients
Main finding · 28-day delirium, CD32b + subsetResult — go to the resultHazard ratio 2.41 95% CI 1.32–4.40Authors' conclusion
The elevated CD32b + subset is associated with postoperative delirium and organ dysfunction-related clinical events in critically ill patients, supporting an association between endothelial phenotypic alterations and vulnerability to brain dysfunction.
Study context
- Population
- Postoperative intensive care unit (ICU) patients (nonseptic, sepsis or septic shock), sampled within 24 h of critical illness onset
- Participants
- 214 patients
- Exposure
- Circulating endothelial subsets and 28-day delirium
- Nonseptic ICUn = 77
- Sepsisn = 61
- Septic shockn = 76
- Outcome
- Delirium (CAM-ICU, assessed daily)
- Follow-up
- 28 days
Methodological detailshigh-dimensional flow cytometry with unsupervised clustering, causal mediation analysis
- High-dimensional flow cytometry with unsupervised clustering
- Causal mediation analysis
Main finding
28-day delirium, CD32b + subset
Hazard ratio
2.41
95% CI 1.32–4.40
P = 0.004
CD32b + subset
HR 2.41 (95% CI 1.32–4.40); P = 0.004
As reported in the abstract
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Further findings
| Outcome | CD32b + subset | Organ dysfunction-related clinical events |
|---|---|---|
| Discrimination for delirium | ||
| AUC | 0.79 (95% CI, 0.60 to 0.98) | 0.69 (95% CI, 0.52 to 0.86) |
| AUC adjusted for age and sex | 0.89 (95% CI, 0.82 to 0.98) | — not stated in the abstract |
— not stated in the abstract
Mediation through organ dysfunction-related events
- Proportion of total effect mediated (partial mediation)
- ≈20%
- Remaining effect possibly via alternative endothelial and microvascular mechanisms
- 80%
Original publication
Circulating Endothelial Signature: A Biomarker of Delirium Risk and Severity in Postoperative Patients. Anesthesiology. Published 6 May 2026. doi:10.
Composed by AI from the published abstract and checked against it. How Briefs are made →