Chapters authored
Serum Metabolomics as a Powerful Tool in Distinguishing Trauma from Other Critical Illness Conditions
Critical illness is highly variable, complicating patient care and recovery. We have previously used metabolomics to investigate several causes of intensive care unit admission, seeking to assess changes in metabolism occurring with each condition. We present a meta-analysis of these serum metabolomes, exploring how the metabolomes differ with each condition. We also present how mass spectrometry-based metabolomics could be used for predictive monitoring. Serum metabolites were previously quantified using nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy in patients with traumatic injury, respiratory failure, pancreatitis, and combat trauma. Healthy controls are also included. Spectral features were analyzed with principal component analysis (PCA) to explore patterns in patients’ underlying conditions. PCA suggests trauma metabolic profiles, particularly combat casualties, differ from other conditions. Principal components 2 and 3, accounting for 16% of the variation in the model, distinguish samples obtained from trauma patients. Metabolomics is a powerful tool for quantifying variability in critical illness, highlighting trauma as separate from other conditions. This observation is in line with the -omics literature, which has described a massive global “genomic storm” in response to severe injury. Mass spectrometry highlights this extreme variability, which occurs in ICU patients but not healthy controls. With new technology, metabolomics could be used to bring faster, individualized patient care to the ICU.
Part of the book: Metabolomics