Massive bleeding causes approximately 50% of deaths in patients with major trauma. Most patients die within 6 h of injury, which is preventable in at least 10% of cases. For these patients, early activation of the massive transfusion protocol (MTP) is a critical survival factor. With severe trauma, high-mobility group box 1 (HMGB-1, i.e., amphoterin) is released into the blood, and its levels correlate with the development of a systemic inflammatory response, traumatic coagulopathy, and fibrinolysis. Previous work has shown that higher levels of HMGB-1 are associated with a higher use of red blood cell transfusions. We conducted a retrospective analysis of previous prospective single-center study to assess the value of admission HMGB-1 levels in predicting activation of MTP in the emergency department. From July 11, 2019, to April 23, 2022, a total of 104 consecutive adult patients with severe trauma (injury severity score > 16) were enrolled. A blood sample was taken at admission, and HMGB-1 was measured. MTP activation in the emergency department was recorded in the study documentation. The total amount of blood products and fibrinogen administered to patients within 6 h of admission was monitored. Among those patients with massive bleeding requiring MTP activation, we found significantly higher levels of HMGB-1 compared to patients without MTP activation (median [interquartile range]: 84.3 µg/L [34.2-145.9] vs. 21.1 µg/L [15.7-30.4]; p < 0.001). HMGB-1 level showed good performance in predicting MTP activation, with an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.84 (95% CI 0.75-0.93) and a cut-off value of 30.55 µg/L. HMGB-1 levels correlated significantly with the number of red blood cell units (rs [95% CI] 0.46 [0.28-0.61]; p < 0.001), units of fresh frozen plasma (rs 0.46 [0.27-0.61]; p < 0.001), platelets (rs 0.48 [0.30-0.62]; p < 0.001), and fibrinogen (rs 0.48 [0.32-0.62]; p < 0.001) administered in the first 6 h after hospital admission. Admission HMGB-1 levels reliably predict severe bleeding requiring MTP activation in the emergency department and correlate with the amount of blood products and fibrinogen administered during the first 6 h of hemorrhagic shock resuscitation.Trial registration: NCT03986736. Registration date: June 4, 2019.

Department of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine University Hospital Ostrava Ostrava Czech Republic

Department of Applied Mathematics Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science VSB Technical University of Ostrava Ostrava Czech Republic

Department of Intensive Medicine Emergency Medicine and Forensic Studies Faculty of Medicine University of Ostrava Ostrava Czech Republic

Department of Pediatrics Faculty of Medicine University Hospital Ostrava Ostrava University Ostrava Czech Republic

Department of Science and Research Faculty of Medicine University of Ostrava Ostrava Czech Republic

Department of the Deputy Director for Science Research and Education University Hospital Ostrava Ostrava Czech Republic

Institute of Laboratory Diagnostics University Hospital Ostrava Ostrava Czech Republic

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