Objective:To analyze the clinical characteristics and outcomes of critically ill pregnant and parturient women in intensive care unit (ICU), and to provide clinical experience for the subspecialty construction of critical obstetrics.Methods:The clinical data of critically ill pregnant and parturient women admitted to the department of critical care medicine, the Second Affiliated Hospital of Kunming Medical University from January 2011 to December 2019 were collected. The main reasons for maternal transfer to ICU, the causes of maternal death, and organ support measures, etc. were summarized.Results:A total of 39 567 critically ill pregnant and parturient women were admitted to the department of obstetrics in our hospital, and 360 were transferred to ICU, with an average ICU transfer rate of 0.91%. Since 2016, the number of obstetric admissions, the number of ICU transfers and the ICU transfer rate had increased significantly. The average age of severe maternals admitted to ICU was (30.9±5.7) years old. The average acute physiology and chronic health evaluation Ⅱ(APACHEⅡ) score was 7 (4, 10). The average length of ICU stay was 1 (1, 2) day. The average ventilator duration was 9.0 (3.0, 17.5) hours. The main delivery mode of pregnant women in ICU was cesarean section (84.72%). Forty-eight patients (13.33%) underwent hysterectomy, of which 42 (87.5%) due to postpartum hemorrhage. The top 3 causes of ICU admission were severe postpartum hemorrhage [36.94% (133/360)], hypertensive disorders of pregnancy [21.67% (78/360)], pregnancy with cardiac disease [15.00% (54/360)]. The leading cause of postpartum hemorrhage in women transferred to ICU was placental abnormality [63.98% (103/161)], followed by uterine atony [28.57% (46/161)]. The average blood loss was (4 019±2 327) mL within 24 hours after delivery, and the number of women who underwent hysterectomy due to postpartum hemorrhage decreased year by year. During the study period, there were 2 maternal deaths, which were indirect obstetric deaths, 3 cases were discharged against-advice (expected death), including 1 indirect death and 2 direct obstetric death; the mortality in ICU was 1.39% (5/360).Conclusions:The most common reasons for pregnant and parturient women to be admitted to ICU were severe postpartum hemorrhage and hypertensive disorders of pregnancy. The leading cause of postpartum hemorrhage was placental problem. Indirect obstetric deaths exceeded direct obstetric deaths, mainly due to pregnancy complicated with cardiac disease and severe pneumonia. ICU has become an important battlefield for rescuing critically ill maternal and an important guarantee for reducing the maternal mortality.

Objective:To analyze the predictive value of von Willebrand factor (vWF) for venous thromboembolism (VTE) of patients in intensive care unit (ICU) by using propensity score matching (PSM).Methods:Patients admitted to ICU of the Second Affiliated Hospital of Kunming Medical University from December 2020 to June 2022 who stayed in ICU for ≥72 hours and underwent daily bedside vascular ultrasound screening were included. Baseline data such as age, gender, primary disease, and chronic comorbidities were collected. Coagulation indexes before admission to ICU and 24 hours and 48 hours after ICU admission were collected, including prothrombin time (PT), activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT), thrombin time (TT), international normalized ratio (INR), fibrinogen (Fib), fibrin monomer (FM), vWF, D-dimer, antithrombin Ⅲ (ATⅢ), etc. Patients were divided into VTE group and non-VTE group according to whether they had VTE or not [diagnosis of VTE: patients underwent daily ultrasound screening of bedside blood vessels (both upper and lower limbs, visceral veins), and those suspected of having thrombosis were confirmed by ultrasonographer or pulmonary angiography]. Using PSM analysis method, the VTE group was used as the benchmark to conduct 1 : 1 matching of age, whether there was malignant tumor, whether there was infection, whether there was diabetes, and coagulation indicators before admission to ICU. Finally, the cases with balanced covariates between the two groups were obtained. The risk factors of VTE were analyzed by multivariate Logistic regression analysis. Receiver operator characteristic curve (ROC curve) was drawn to evaluate the predictive value of vWF in the occurrence of VTE in critically ill patients.Results:A total of 120 patients were enrolled, of which 18 (15.0%) were diagnosed with VTE within 72 hours after admission to ICU, and 102 (85.0%) were not found to have thrombus in ICU. Before PSM, there were significant differences in age, gender, proportion of malignant tumor and infection, and coagulation indexes between VTE group and non-VTE group. After PSM, 14 pairs were successfully matched, and the unbalanced covariables between the two groups reached equilibrium. Multivariate Logistic regression analysis showed that vWF was an independent risk factor for VTE at 48 hours after ICU admission in critically ill patients [odds ratio ( OR) = 1.165, 95% confidence interval (95% CI) was 1.000-1.025, P = 0.004]. ROC curve analysis showed that the area under the ROC curve (AUC) of vWF at 48 hours after ICU admission for predicting VTE was 0.782, 95% CI was 0.618-0.945, P = 0.007. When the optimal cut-off value was 312.12%, the sensitivity was 67.7% and the specificity was 93.0%. Conclusion:Dynamic monitoring of vWF is helpful to predict the occurrence of VTE in ICU patients, and vWF at 48 hours after ICU admission has certain value in predicting the occurrence of VTE.