This retrospective cohort examined systemic oxygen delivery relative to consumption (DO2/VO2) in adults undergoing invasive haemodynamic assessment in medical and surgical cardiac intensive care units. Mortality showed a nonlinear association with DO2/VO2: relative to the median of 4.73, values around 2 were associated with the highest mortality likelihood. A prespecified cut-point of 5 showed no significant mortality association in Kaplan-Meier analysis. The ratio was also not significantly associated with mechanical circulatory support or heart transplantation; the abstract reported no numerical effect estimates or uncertainty intervals.
Continuous DO2/VO2 measurements may identify a higher-risk cardiac ICU phenotype, but the nonlinear association does not establish a clinically actionable threshold or a causal relationship.
Study limitation: The retrospective design limits causal interpretation, and the abstract omits sample size, mortality follow-up duration, and numerical effect estimates.
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