Role of suPAR and Lactic Acid in Diagnosing Sepsis and Predicting Mortality in Elderly Patients

This study investigated the diagnostic value of soluble urokinase plasminogen activator receptor (suPAR) and serum lactate in elderly patients with sepsis and evaluated their capacity to predict mortality and their correlation to Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) score. The study included 80 participants, divided into two groups: 40 cases (mean age, 68.9 ± 5.9) admitted to the intensive care unit and 40 healthy controls (mean age, 67.1 ± 6.2). Elderly patients with sepsis had significantly higher levels of serum suPAR and lactic acid compared to healthy controls. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis showed that suPAR (cutoff value, ≥4.37 ng/ml) has higher area under the curve (AUC) than lactic acid (cutoff value, ≥1.95 mmol/l) for diagnosing sepsis. Serum lactate has superior prognostic value compared to suPAR with AUC of 0.82 (cutoff value, 2.2 mmol/l) and 0.72 (cutoff value, 6.3 ng/ml), respectively. The diagnostic power of combined usage of suPAR and lactate serum concentrations showed AUC of 0.988 (95% confidence interval 0.934 to 1.0). The combination of both biomarkers either together or with SOFA score may serve as a useful guide to patients who need more intensive resuscitation.