ASSOCIATION BETWEEN C-REACTIVE PROTEIN/ALBUMIN AND C-REACTIVE PROTINE/PROTEIN RATIOS AND POOR OUTCOMES IN PALLIATIVE CARE PATIENTS WITH PRESSURE ULCERS

Introduction: Pressure ulcers are a significant cause of mortality and morbidity in older adult patients. Inflammatory processes accompany pressure ulcers. C-reactive protein and procalcitonin tests are sufficiently sensitive to show inflammation.Determining the ratios of these tests to each other may show a better performance in diagnosing and predicting the prognosis Materials and Method: In this retrospective observational study, the records of patients with stage 2 and higher stage pressure ulcers who were followed up in the Adult Palliative Care Unit between January 1, 2019, and December 31, 2019 were reviewed. The National Pressure Injury Advisory Panel staging system was used for pressure ulcer staging. The patients were followed up for one year after hospitalization. Results: The study included 151 patients with pressure ulcer who met the study criteria [80 (52.9%) female; 71 (47.1%) male] with a mean age of 74.7 +/- 12.6 years, and a mean length of hospital stay of 50.7 +/- 53.25 days. The one-year mortality rate was 70.8% (107/151).C-reaktif protein/albumin ratio and C-reaktif protein/total protein ratios were found to be significantly higher in the group with mortality (p<0.05). A ROC analysis revealed a cut-off value of 30.05 for the prediction of mortality in CRP, as the point at which the sum of the sensitivity and specificity values is the highest. The value of 35.2 predicting mortality for C-reaktif protein albumin ratio is the point at which the sum of the sensitivity and specificity values is the highest. Conclusion: C-reaktif protein albumin ratio and CRP protein ratios demonstrated better prognosis and mortality prediction performance than CRP, albumin and total protein alone.