Translartion. Region: Russians Fedetion –
Source: Novosibirsk State University – Novosibirsk State University –
Scientists from Novosibirsk State University, as a result of a study conducted jointly with colleagues from the Meshalkin National Medical Research Center, have identified metabolic markers that warn of a high risk of developing certain complications in patients in the postoperative period.
Statistics show that approximately 30% of patients after open-heart surgery develop delirium (“postoperative psychosis”) as a reaction to drug anesthesia. Such patients require special postoperative care, and the ability to predict the risk of developing such a condition in advance would be of significant help to doctors in this.
As the researchers note, this reaction does not occur due to the drug, but rather due to the presence of certain prerequisites for the possibility of developing delirium in a person. And anesthesia in this case acts only as a “trigger”. Therefore, the solution to the problem was sought in the field of metabolomic research, which makes it possible to understand how metabolism occurs in the body and study the interrelations of biochemical reactions.
— Metabolomics is part of omics technologies, which have been rapidly developing in the last couple of decades, largely due to the opportunities that processing large biological data gives us. With their help, it is possible to reconstruct biochemical networks through several “omics” layers (genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics). And this is very important, since living organisms are integral systems and they need to be studied in a comprehensive manner, — explained the head of the Department of Fundamental Medicine Faculty of Medicine and Psychology, NSU Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences Andrey Pokrovsky.
Metabolomics makes it possible to understand how metabolism occurs in the body, to study the interrelations of biochemical reactions. As a result, it is possible to obtain a metabolic profile of a number of compounds in the body, to understand their role in physiological processes.
And here the level of detail of the patient’s metabolic profile plays a major role. A conventional biochemical analysis covers about 10-20 different metabolites, but the method used by NSU researchers allows increasing their number to several hundred.
“Within the framework of this project, we were able to examine about one hundred and fifty patients and, using our approach, identified certain molecules that can be used to predict the occurrence of delirium with a fairly high degree of accuracy,” said Andrey Pokrovsky.
Using a biochemical blood test, doctors can already identify patients who are at risk of developing this postoperative complication before surgery and adjust their treatment strategy accordingly.
In the future, scientists are considering the possibility of using the same approach to try to find similar markers of the risk of developing delirium not only after heart surgery – studies have already been published abroad indicating the presence of similar risks developing after other operations, also accompanied by long-term drug anesthesia.
The study itself became part of a large-scale project carried out by NSU scientists to study the metabolic profiles of patients with various diseases in order to find new markers for their better diagnosis and prediction of the risks of various complications.
Please note: This information is raw content directly from the source of the information. It is exactly what the source states and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.