Clinical Trials Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2024. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Aug 6, 2024; 12(22): 5016-5023
Published online Aug 6, 2024. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v12.i22.5016
Serum activin A as a prognostic biomarker for community acquired pneumonia
Yu-Ting Wang, Yan Liu, Guang-Hui Zhou, Kan Liu, Yan Fen, Hui Ding
Yu-Ting Wang, Yan Liu, Guang-Hui Zhou, Kan Liu, Yan Fen, Hui Ding, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Yixing People’s Hospital of Jiangsu University, Yixing 214200, Jiangsu Province, China
Co-first authors: Yu-Ting Wang and Yan Liu
Author contributions: Ding H made substantial contributions to the conception of the work; Wang YT was the chief investigator and responsible for the data analysis; Liu Y made significant contributions to the data analysis and interpretation; Liu K, Zhou GH and Fen Y developed the trial design; All authors contributed to the writing of the final manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: This study was approved by the ethical committee of Yixing People’s Hospital (Approval No. 2018-036).
Clinical trial registration statement: This study is registered at Yixing People’s Hospital trial registry. The registration identification number is 2018-036.
Informed consent statement: All study participants, or their legal guardian, provided informed written consent prior to study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
CONSORT 2010 statement: The authors have read the CONSORT 2010 statement, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CONSORT 2010 statement.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Hui Ding, Doctor, PhD, Chief Doctor, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Yixing People’s Hospital of Jiangsu University, No. 75 Tongzhen Road, Yixing 214200, Jiangsu Province, China. dh1350519@163.com
Received: April 17, 2024
Revised: May 24, 2024
Accepted: June 21, 2024
Published online: August 6, 2024
Processing time: 76 Days and 2.6 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND

It is essential to develop new biomarker with effective prognostic roles because of the unclear clinical use of the current community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) predictors.

AIM

To evaluate the association between serum activin A levels and prognosis in CAP patients.

METHODS

A total of 168 CAP individuals grouped according to the severity and prognosis of illness condition, and 48 healthy individuals as the control group were enrolled in this study. Circulating concentrations of activin A were measured using enzyme-linked immunoassays. The interaction between activin A levels and etiologies of CAP was determined. Based on the severity of CAP, 110 patients (65.48%) were categorized into group-I, 42 (25%) cases were grouped into group-II, and 16 (9.52%) cases were categorized into group-III.

RESULTS

Serum activin A levels were higher in patients with CAP than controls, but independent of etiology. Moreover, the scores of Pneumonia Severity Index (PSI) and CURB-65 positively correlated with the increasing levels of serum activin A, and were at their highest peak in individuals in group-III (P < 0.001). Combining activin A with CURB-65 or PSI was more effective in improving predictive property (P < 0.01). According to Cox proportional regression analysis, after adjusting clinical parameters, we confirmed that activin A showed a powerful predictive property for hospital mortality in CAP patients (P < 0.001).

CONCLUSION

Higher level of serum activin A was associated with poor prognosis of CAP. Activin A can be used as a more valuable biomarker of prognosis in CAP patients.

Keywords: Community-acquired pneumonia, Activin A, Etiology, Prognosis, Etiology

Core Tip: Serum activin A levels were significantly higher in community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) patients. Higher level of serum activin A was associated with the severity and poor prognosis of CAP. Activin A can be used as a more valuable biomarker of prognosis in CAP patients. Future studies are justified to explore the precise biomolecular functions of activin A in CAP.