Role of plasma ammonia level in detecting intra-abdominal hemorrhage following blunt abdominal trauma

Background: blunt abdominal injury is a leading cause of death in trauma patients. a reliable test predicting intra-abdominal hemorrhage would be a novel method. the study objective was to assess the diagnostic accuracy of plasma ammonia in detection of intra-abdominal bleeding in patients with blunt abdominal trauma (bat). materials and methods: in this observational study, all patients suffering from bat, referred to our university teaching hospital included. the levels of ammonia were measured at the time of emergency department admission and 1 h after initial treatment. demographic data, vital signs, and venous blood gas reports were recorded. findings of contrast-enhanced abdominopelvic computed tomography scan and laparotomy were assumed as a gold standard for abdominal injuries. results: a total of 104 patients was enrolled in the study. 15 patients (14.4%) had intra-abdominal hemorrhage and the mean plasma ammonia level in this group was significantly higher than the other patients on admission time (101.73 ± 5.41 μg/dl vs. 47.36 ± 26.31 μg/dl, p < 0.001). on receiver-operator characteristic curve analysis, in cutoff point of 89 μg/ dl, the sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative likelihood ratios were 100% (95% confidence interval [ci], 79.6-100), 93.26% (95% ci, 86-96.8), 14.83 (95% ci, 6.84-32.12), and 0, respectively. conclusion: the study findings suggest the measurement of ammonia level at the time of admission in the patients with bat would be a useful test predicting intra-abdominal hemorrhage. furthermore, decrease in the ammonia level could be a useful marker for monitoring response to treatment in these patients.