Background: Systemic immune inflammation has been investigated as a prognostic marker of different diseases. This study is designed to assess the association of systemic immune-inflammation index (SII) with long-term mortality of stroke-associated pneumonia (SAP) patients.
Methods: Patients aged ≥ 18 years with SAP were selected from the Nanjing Stroke Registry Program in China. We retrospectively evaluated systemic immune-inflammation response with SII and pneumonia severity with the pneumonia severity index and the confusion, uremia, elevated respiratory rate, hypotension, and aged 65 years or older score. To explore the correlation between SII and mortality in SAP patients, multivariable Cox regressions and competing risk regressions were conducted. Mediation analysis was also performed to assess the role of pneumonia severity.
Results: Among 611 patients in the SAP population, death occurred in 164 patients (26.8%) during the median follow-up of 3.0 (1.2– 4.6) years. In multivariate analysis, higher SII scores could predict increased mortality in patients with SAP (adjusted hazard ratio 2.061; 95% confidence interval, 1.256– 3.383; P = 0.004), and the association was mediated by pneumonia severity. Moreover, adding SII to traditional models improved their predictive ability for mortality.
Conclusion: Our study displayed that SII was characterized in SAP patients with different prognoses. Elevated SII scores increased the risk of mortality. Further research is required for the clinical practice of the index among SAP patients.
Keywords: systemic immune-inflammation index, stroke-associated pneumonia, mortality, China