On the use of decision trees for ICU outcome prediction in sepsis patients treated with statins

Sepsis is one of the main causes of death for noncoronary ICU (Intensive Care Unit) patients and has become the tenth most common cause of death in western societies. This is a transversal condition affecting immunocompromised patients, critically ill patients, post-surgery patients, patients with AIDS, and the elderly. In western countries, septic patients account for as much as 25% of ICU bed utilization and the pathology affects 1% - 2% of all hospitalizations. Its mortality rates range from 12.8% for sepsis to 45.7% for septic shock. Early administration of antibiotics is known to be crucial for ICU outcomes. In this regard, statins, a class of drug, have been shown to present good anti-inflammatory properties beyond their regulation of the biosynthesis of cholesterol. In this brief paper, we hypothesize that preadmission use of statins improves ICU outcomes. We test this hypothesis in a prospective study in patients admitted with severe sepsis and multiorgan failure at the ICU of Vall d´ Hebron University Hospital (Barcelona, Spain), using statistic algebraic models and regression trees.