Association of Serum Mannose With Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome Risk and Survival

Importance

Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) confers high mortality risk among critically ill patients. Identification of biomarkers associated with ARDS risk may guide clinical diagnosis and prognosis.

Objective

To systematically evaluate the association of blood metabolites with ARDS risk and survival.

Design, Setting, and Participants

In this cohort study, data from the Molecular Epidemiology of ARDS (MEARDS) study, a prospective cohort of 403 patients with ARDS and 1227 non-ARDS controls, were analyzed. Patients were recruited in intensive care units (ICUs) at Massachusetts General Hospital and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, both in Boston, Massachusetts, from January 1, 1998, to December 31, 2014. Data analysis was performed from December 9, 2018, to January 4, 2019.

Main Outcomes and Measures

Participants were followed up daily for ARDS development defined by Berlin criteria, requiring fulfillment of chest radiograph and oxygenation criteria on the same calendar day during invasive ventilatory assistance. A 2-stage study design was used to explore novel metabolites associated with ARDS risk and survival.

Results

Of the 1630 participants from MEARDS who were admitted to the ICU , 403 (24.7%) were diagnosed with ARDS (mean [SD] age, 63.0 [17.0] years; 251 [62.3%] male) and 1227 (75.3%) were at-risk but did not have ARDS (mean [SD] age, 62.3 [16.9] years; 753 [61.4%] male). Mendelian randomization suggested that genetically regulated serum mannose was associated with ARDS risk (odds ratio [OR], 0.64; 95% CI, 0.53-0.78;P = 7.46 × 10⁻⁶) in the discovery stage. In the functional validation stage incorporating 83 participants with ARDS and matched at-risk participants in the control group from the ICU, the protective association of mannose with ARDS risk was validated (OR, 0.67; 95% CI, 0.46-0.97;P = .03). Furthermore, serum mannose was associated with 28-day (OR, 0.25; 95% CI, 0.11-0.56;P = 6.95 × 10⁻⁴) and 60-day (OR, 0.36; 95% CI, 0.19-0.71;P = 3.12 × 10⁻³) mortality and 28-day (hazard ratio, 0.49; 95% CI, 0.32-0.74;P = 6.41 × 10⁻⁴) and 60-day (hazard ratio, 0.55; 95% CI, 0.37-0.80;P = 2.11 × 10⁻³) survival.

Conclusions and Relevance

In this study, genetically regulated serum mannose appeared to be associated with ARDS risk and outcome, and increased serum mannose at admission was associated with reduced ARDS risk and better survival. These findings could inform prevention and clinical intervention in ARDS cases, which have increased with the expansion of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic.