Neuromuscular electrical stimulation acutely mobilizes endothelial progenitor cells in critically ill patients with sepsis

Annals of Intensive Care

Table 2 EPCs numbers (cells/million enucleated cells, mean ± SD) before and after NMES sessions for the subgroups in terms of NMES protocol, steroids administration and sepsis severity

Subgroups	CD34⁺/CD133⁺/CD45⁻ EPCs				CD34⁺/CD133⁺/CD45⁻/VEGFR₂ ⁺ EPCs				CD34⁺/CD45⁻/VEGFR₂ ⁺ EPCs
Subgroups	Pre-	Post-	p*	p ^#	Pre-	Post-	p*	p ^#	Pre-	Post-	p*	p ^#
By NMES protocols
HF	18.0 ± 11.6	23.6 ± 18.1	0.18	0.60	4.8 ± 4.6	7.3 ± 9.4	0.31	0.91	15.9 ± 15.6	18.6 ± 11.6	0.13	0.20
MF	10.1 ± 7.6	18.7 ± 16.1	0.04	0.60	2.9 ± 5.6	5.8 ± 8.0	0.06	0.91	17.0 ± 14.1	28.0 ± 23.0	0.03	0.20
By steroids administration
Steroids	16.7 ± 8.8	14.2 ± 8.6	0.46	0.02	5.5 ± 7.5	2.6 ± 2.3	0.13	<0.01	21.0 ± 19.3	22.5 ± 22.5	0.84	0.21
Nonsteroids	12.1 ± 10.6	23.8 ± 19.0	<0.01	0.02	3.0 ± 3.7	8.2 ± 9.8	<0.01	<0.01	14.5 ± 11.8	24.5 ± 18.1	<0.01	0.21
By sepsis severity
Lower SOFA score patients	13.4 ± 10.1	22.5 ± 20.9	0.04	0.88	3.3 ± 3.7	4.9 ± 7.7	0.50	0.43	14.9 ± 15.6	21.4 ± 17.8	0.24	0.82
Higher SOFA score patients	13.2 ± 9.6	21.4 ± 13.8	0.07	0.88	4.6 ± 6.4	8.5 ± 9.4	0.04	0.43	16.6 ± 13.1	24.7 ± 19.9	0.01	0.82

EPCs endothelial progenitor cells, HF high-frequency NMES protocol, MF medium-frequency NMES protocol
* p value for within-group differences; ^# p value for between-group differences