A prospective pilot study using metabolomics discloses specific fatty acid, catecholamine and tryptophan metabolic pathways as possible predictors for a negative outcome after severe trauma

BACKGROUND: We wanted to define metabolomic patterns in plasma to predict a negative outcome in severe trauma patients. METHODS: A prospective pilot study was designed to evaluate plasma metabolomic patterns, established by liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry, in patients allocated to an intensive care unit (in the University Hospital Arnau de Vilanova, Lleida, Spain) in the first hours after a severe trauma (n = 48). Univariate and multivariate statistics were employed to establish potential predictors of mortality. RESULTS: Plasma of patients non surviving to trauma (n = 5) exhibited a discriminating metabolomic pattern, involving basically metabolites belonging to fatty acid and catecholamine synthesis as well as tryptophan degradation pathways. Thus, concentration of several metabolites exhibited an area under the receiver operating curve (ROC) higher than 0.84, including 3-indolelactic acid, hydroxyisovaleric acid, phenylethanolamine, cortisol, epinephrine and myristic acid. Multivariate binary regression logistic revealed that patients with higher myristic acid concentrations had a non-survival odds ratio of 2.1 (CI 95% 1.1–3.9). CONCLUSIONS: Specific fatty acids, catecholamine synthesis and tryptophan degradation pathways could be implicated in a negative outcome after trauma. The metabolomic study of severe trauma patients could be helpful for biomarker proposal. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s13049-019-0631-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.