Aims: C-reactive protein (CRP) and albumin can be used as prognostic markers for various clinical results, the combination of these markers has even greater prognostic value. This study aimed to examine whether the C-reactive protein-to-albumin ratio (CAR) has any prognostic role in respect of mortality in intensive care unit (ICU) patients.
Methods: A retrospective evaluation was made of 119 patients in the ICU in respect of demographic characteristics, disease diagnosis, laboratory data, CAR, and acute physiology and chronic health evaluation II (APACHE II) scores.
Results: The mean APACHE II scores and the total length of stay in hospital values were significantly higher, albumin was low and the mean CRP and CAR values were high in the non-survivors group. In the multivariate analysis, CAR, and APACHE II were determined as independent determinants. The Kaplan-Meier curve and the Log-Rank test showed that total 60-day mortality was higher in the patient group with high CAR. In the ROC curve analysis applied for 60-day mortality after admission to ICU, the area under the curve values of APACHE II and CAR were calculated as 0.947 and 0.676 respectively.
Conclusion: Few studies are available in the literature about the CAR value in general ICU patients was evaluated in respect of mortality. It was determined that increased CAR values were associated with mortality. This can be considered an important parameter as the predictive rates of mortality are as high as those of APACHE II, and it is a low-cost and readily available parameter that can be used alone in the determination of mortality prediction.