PTX3 levels act as biomarkers of mortality in patients with sepsis: BMC

China: In a new study conducted by Guobin Wang and the team, it was found that individuals with sepsis who did not survive had much greater levels of Pentraxin-3 (PTX3) than patients who did. Mortality was significantly correlated with elevated PTX3 levels. The findings of this study were published in BMC Critical Care Journal.

Acute-phase protein PTX3 is a member of the long-chain pentameric protein superfamily. It plays a significant part in the control of inflammation as a vital part of the human innate immune system. The literature has demonstrated that an increased risk of patient mortality from sepsis was linked to a higher level of PTX3. Therefore, this study was conducted to define the predictive significance of Pentraxin-3 (PTX3) on the mortality of sepsis patients.

PubMed, EMBASE, and the Cochrane library were searched for publications that had been published as recently as January 2021. For the meta-analysis, information was taken from case-control and cohort studies that were eligible. To assess the relationship between results and sample size and the percentage of men, multivariate regression analysis was utilized.

The key findings of this study were as follows:

1. There were 17 trials in all, totaling 3658 sepsis patients.

2. Patients who did not survive had much greater levels of PTX3 than those who did.

3. Mortality was significantly correlated with elevated PTX3 levels.

4. PTX3 demonstrated strong mortality prediction abilities.

5. The comparison of PTX3 levels in survivors and non-survivors, as well as the connection between PTX3 and mortality, were both influenced by sample size, but not by the proportion of men.

6. AUC was related to both sample size and the percentage of men.

In conclusion, According to this meta-analysis, patients with sepsis who did not survive compared to those who did survive had plasma PTX3 concentrations that were considerably greater. Higher PTX3 levels had a strong correlation with death, and PTX3 was a viable biomarker for sepsis prognosis. To confirm our findings, additional multicenter studies with a bigger sample size are required.

Reference:

Wang, G., Jiang, C., Fang, J., Li, Z., & Cai, H. (2022). Pentraxin-3 as a predictive marker of mortality in sepsis: an updated systematic review and meta-analysis. In Critical Care (Vol. 26, Issue 1). Springer Science and Business Media LLC. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13054-022-04032-x