Testing and its clinical significance of plasma neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin in patients with acute pancreatitis

Abstract

Objective To quantify the concentration of peripheral blood plasma neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) in patients with acute pancreatitis (AP) and to explore its value in assessment of the severity of AP.Methods From June 2011 to March 2012,83 patients with AP were selected,among those 43 cases were mild acute pancreatitis (MAP) and 40 were severe acute pancreatitis (SAP).The control group included 30 healthy individuals.The peripheral blood of patients with AP and healthy controls was collected,and plasma was isolated after centrifuged.The concentration of NGAL in plasma was detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA).The t-test was performed for comparison between groups.The correlation between the concentration of NGAL in plasma and clinical parameters of AP was analyzed by Spearman rank order correlation analysis.The diagnosis value of the concentration of NGAL in SAP was evaluated by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve and area under the curve (AUC).Results The concentration of plasma NGAL in AP group ((10.30± 5.97)nmol/L) was higher than that in healthy control group ((1.94±1.35) nmol/L) and the difference was statistically significant (t=11.924,P＜0.01).The concentration of plasma NGAL in SAP group ((14.61 ±5.28) nmol/L) was higher than that in MAP group ((6.27±-3.09) nmol/L) and healthy control group,the differences was statistically significant (t=8.677 and 14.539,both P＜0.01).The concentration of plasma NGAL of AP patients was positively correlated with acute physiology and chronic health evaluation-Ⅱ score,Ranson score,bedside index for severity in acute pancreatitis score,computed tomography (CT) severity index,C-reactive protein,white blood cells and the days of hospitalization (r=0.651,0.556,0.514,0.620,0.320,0.458 and 0.346,all P＜0.05).The area under the ROC curve of plasma NGAL concentration in diagnosis of SAP was 0.926 (95％CI:0,870-0.983).The cutoff value of plasma NGAL level in diagnosis of SAP was 8.44 nmol/L.The sensitivity and specificity was 87.5 ％ and 88.9％,respectively.Conclusions Plasma NGAL level is correlated with the severity of patients with AP.NGAL may be one of the markers for the early diagnosis of SAP. Key words: Acute pancreatitis ; Neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin ; Plasma concentration