Clinical feature and laboratory findings of multiple organ failure

The pathology of multiple organ failure consists of tissue-cell damage (disruption of energy metabolism) and severe infections (host exhaustion). The impairment of the TCA cycle was mild in two-organ disease but was nearly arrested in three-organ disease, and the cells are considered to have been in lactic acidosis with a shift of the glycolytic system from pyruvate to lactate. Significant differences were observed also in the number and the function of lymphocytes between two-organ and three-organ diseases. Therefore, in multiple organ failure, infections are considered to worsen as the ability of antigen recognition is impaired and differentiation of B cells into antibody-producing cells is inhibited with a decrease in lymphocytes. The phagocytic activity of neutrophils did not decrease unless leukocytes were reduced.