Dexamethasone Prophylaxis in Pediatric Open Heart Surgery Is Associated with Increased Blood Long Pentraxin PTX3: Potential Clinical Implications

Table 1

Demographic and clinical characteristics of the patients.

	Treated (+Dexamethasone)	Untreated (−Dexamethasone)	𝑃
	No. (%)	No. (%)
Gender: females	5/14 (35.7%)	9/15 (60%)	0.19a
	Median (1st–3rd q)	Median (1st–3rd q)
Age (months)	9 (5–14)	6 (3–18)	0.30
Weight (Kg)	7.9 (6.1–8.1)	5.6 (4.0–9.8)	0.11
CPB (minutes)	95 (83–112)	93 (81–122)	0.84
AXT (minutes)	64 (59–76)	62 (46–73)	0.49
Mechanical ventilation (hours)	16.5 (9–48)	24 (16–32)	0.26
ICU stay (days)	1 (1–3)	2 (1.5–3)	0.10
Blood loss at T5 (ml/Kg/hr)	0.8 (0.7–0.9)	0.9 (0.7–1.5)	0.38
Alveolar-arteriolar oxygen difference at T5 (mmHg)	219 (158–316)	293 (152–393)	0.58

CPB: cardiopulmonary bypass; AXT: duration of aortic clamping; ICU: intensive care unit; aChi-square test.
All 𝑃 values refer to Mann-Whitney U test unless otherwise specified.