Longer storage duration of red blood cells is associated with an increased risk of acute lung injury in patients with sepsis

Annals of Intensive Care

Table 3 Maximum storage days and risk of ALI/ARDS in patients with sepsis

Characteristics	Odds ratio	95% CI	p value
Maximum storage days (32 vs. 20)	2	1.12-3.58	0.02
Unit of transfused blood (4 vs. 2)	0.88	0.54-1.45	0.626
Age (65 vs. 47 yr)	0.64	0.38-1.07	0.089
Baseline APACHE II score (33 vs. 23)	0.89	0.52-1.54	0.676
Current smoker (yes vs. no)	0.86	0.39-1.91	0.717

Odds ratio for maximum storage days is the odds of developing ALI/ARDS in the 96 hours after transfusion for the patients receiving RBCs in the 75^th compared with 25^th percentile of maximum storage duration, defined as the unit of RBCs of the longest storage duration received by a patient.