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. 2016 Dec 23;20:408. doi: 10.1186/s13054-016-1579-8

Table 2.

Sepsis incidence rates and hospitalization characteristics by HDL-C and LDL-C quartile

Variable HDL-C quartile p LDL-C quartile p
Q1, 5–40 mg/dl Q2, 41–49 mg/dl Q3, 50–61 mg/dl Q4, 62–199 mg/dl Q1, 3–89 mg/dl Q2, 90–111 mg/dl Q3, 112–135 mg/dl Q4, 136–388 mg/dl
Number of participants 7305 7064 7162 6749 6984 7088 6915 6896
Sepsis events, N (%) 485 (6.6) 372 (5.3) 329 (4.6) 264 (3.9) 451 (6.5) 399 (5.6) 304 (4.4) 261 (3.8)
IR (per 1000 person-years), 95% CI 10.6 (9.7–11.6) 8.5 (7.7–9.4) 7.3 (6.6–8.1) 6.2 (5.5–7.0) 10.6 (9.6–11.6) 8.9 (8.1–9.9) 6.9 (6.2–7.7) 6.0 (5.3–6.8)
Sepsis event hospitalization characteristics
 Infection type, N (%)
  Pneumonia 179 (36.9) 128 (34.4) 138 (42.0) 120 (45.5) 0.018 181 (40.1) 151 (37.8) 113 (37.2) 105 (40.2) 0.79
  Kidney and urinary tract infections 86 (17.7) 71 (19.1) 58 (17.6) 22 (12.5) 0.16 80 (17.7) 79 (19.8) 61 (20.1) 22 (8.4) <0.001
  Abdominal 78 (16.1) 71 (19.1) 40 (12.2) 22 (12.5) 0.038 62 (13.8) 64 (16.0) 44 (14.5) 47 (18.0) 0.45
  Skin and soft tissue 50 (10.3) 29 (7.8) 17 (5.2) 20 (7.6) 0.066 43 (9.5) 26 (6.5) 26 (8.6) 19 (7.3) 0.40
  Bronchitis, influenza and other lung infections 34 (7.0) 34 (9.1) 35 (10.6) 31 (11.7) 0.13 34 (7.5) 38 (9.5) 34 (11.2) 27 (10.3) 0.35
  Sepsis 42 (8.7) 21 (5.7) 18 (5.5) 16 (6.1) 0.20 30 (6.7) 23 (5.8) 16 (5.3) 24 (9.2) 0.24
  Fever of unknown origin 4 (0.8) 7 (1.9) 11 (3.3) 4 (1.5) 0.072 6 (1.3) 9 (2.3) 3 (1.0) 7 (2.7) 0.34
  Surgical wound 1 (0.2) 3 (0.8) 5 (1.5) 1 (0.4) 0.14 2 (0.4) 2 (0.5) 2 (0.7) 4 (1.5) 0.41
  Catheter (IV/central/dialysis) 2 (0.4) 0 (0) 0 (0) 3 (1.1) 2 (0.4) 1 (0.3) 1 (0.3) 0 (0) 0.91
  Meningitis 0 (0) 2 (0.5) 2 (0.6) 1 (0.4) 0.27 2 (0.4) 1 (0.3) 0 (0) 2 (0.8) 0.51
  Unknown/other 9 (1.9) 6 (1.6) 5 (1.5) 2 (0.8) 0.70 9 (2.0) 5 (1.3) 4 (1.3) 4 (1.5) 0.85
Elevated SOFA score (SOFA ≥ 2), N (%) 266 (54.9) 175 (47.0) 147 (44.7) 119 (45.1) 0.010 251 (55.7) 201 (50.4) 127 (41.8) 107 (41.0) <0.001
Admitted to ICU vs floor, N (%)a 69 (16.0) 42 (12.8) 41 (14.4) 24 (9.9) 0.16 70 (17.0) 41 (11.6) 26 (10.2) 32 (13.9) 0.051
In-hospital death, N (%) 43 (8.9) 30 (8.1) 30 (9.1) 25 (9.5) 0.93 43 (9.5) 35 (8.8) 19 (6.3) 29 (11.1) 0.22

Total of 29,690 participants. LDL-C measurement missing for 1807 participants. HDL-C measurement missing for 1410 participants

p values from Pearson chi-square tests of association for variables with at least five observations in 75% of table cells, and Fisher exact tests for all others

aIncludes only events resulting in an inpatient admission and those with inpatient records available

LDL-C low-density lipoprotein, HDL-C high-density lipoprotein, IR incidence rate, CI confidence interval, SOFA Sepsis-related Organ Failure Assessment, ICU intensive care unit