BMC Infectious Diseases

official impact factor 2.83

Open Access Research article

Dynamic changes of serum soluble triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells-1 (sTREM-1) reflect sepsis severity and can predict prognosis: a prospective study

Jie Zhang1,3, Danyang She1, Dan Feng2, Yanhong Jia1 and Lixin Xie1*

Author Affiliations

1 Department of Respiratory Medicine, Chinese PLA General Hospital, 28 Fuxing Road, Beijing, China

2 Department of Medical Statistics, Chinese PLA General Hospital, 28 Fuxing Road, Beijing, China

3 a postgraduate of Medical College, Nankai University, Tianjin, China

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BMC Infectious Diseases 2011, 11:53 doi:10.1186/1471-2334-11-53

Published: 1 March 2011

Abstract

Background

We examined the utility of serum levels of soluble triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells-1 (sTREM-1) for the diagnoses, severity assessments, and predicting the prognoses of patients with sepsis and compared sTREM-1 values with those of C-reactive protein (CRP) and procalcitonin (PCT).

Methods

Fifty-two patients with sepsis were included: 15 sepsis cases and 37 severe sepsis cases (severe sepsis + septic shock). Serum levels of sTREM-1, CRP, and PCT were determined on days 1, 3, 5, 7, 10, and 14 after admission to an ICU.

Results

Serum sTREM-1 levels of patients with severe sepsis were significantly higher than for those with sepsis on day 1 (240.6 pg/ml vs. 118.3 pg/ml; P < 0.01), but CRP and PCT levels were not significantly different between the two groups. The area under an ROC curve for sTREM-1 for severe sepsis patients was 0.823 (95% confidence interval: 0.690-0.957). Using 222.5 pg/ml of sTREM-1 as the cut-off value, the sensitivity was 59.5%, the specificity was 93.3%, the positive predictive value was 95.6%, the negative predictive value was 48.3%, the positive likelihood ratio was 8.92, and the negative likelihood ratio was 0.434. Based on 28-day survivals, sTREM-1 levels in the surviving group showed a tendency to decrease over time, while they tended to gradually increase in the non-surviving group. sTREM-1 levels in the non-surviving group were higher than those in the surviving group at all time points, whereas CRP and PCT levels showed a tendency to decrease over time in both groups. sTREM-1 levels and Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) scores were positively correlated (r = 0.443; P < 0.001), and this correlation coefficient was greater than the correlation coefficients for both CRP and PCT.

Conclusions

Serum sTREM-1 levels reflected the severity of sepsis more accurately than those of CRP and PCT and were more sensitive for dynamic evaluations of sepsis prognosis.

Trial Registration

Current controlled trials ChiCTR-OCH-09000745