[Urinary long non-coding RNA H19 may serve as a biomarker for early diagnosis of acute intestinal necrosis]

To explore the value of urinary long non-coding RNA(lncRNA) H19 in the differential diagnosis of acute intestinal necrosis against other abdominal emergencies.

Surgical specimens of necrotic intestinal tissues, adjacent normal intestinal tissues, and serum and urine samples were collected from 51 patients with acute intestinal necrosis, and analyzed along with the serum and urine samples from 51 healthy controls, patients with 10 different acute abdominal conditions(35 cases for each condition), and patients with breast cancer, gastric cancer, bladder cancer, acute myeloid leukemia, and lung cancer(10 cases for each malignancy). The expression levels of H19 were measured with quantitative PCR in the collected samples. Receiver-operating characteristic(ROC)curves were used to determine the diagnostic value of serum and urine H19 levels for acute intestinal necrosis.

The 51 patients with acute intestinal necrosis included 35 women and 26 men(mean age of 74.4 years) with arterial thrombosis as the dominant etiology(26 cases). Compared with that in normal intestinal tissues, H19 was significantly overexpressed by 11.2 times in necrotic intestinal tissues(P < 0.001). Serum and urine H19 expression levels did not differ significantly among the healthy controls, patients with other acute abdominal conditions and malignancies(P > 0.05). Serum and urine H19 levels were significantly up-regulated in patients with acute intestinal necrosis as compared with those in the other subjects included in the analysis(P < 0.001). In patients with acute intestinal necrosis, H19 levels in the necrotic intestinal tissue, serum and urine samples were significantly correlated with correlation coefficients of 0.974(tissue vs serum), 0.967(serum vs urine), and 0.917(tissue vs urine). In ROC curve analysis, the areas under curves(AUCs)of serum and urine H19 for diagnosis of acute intestinal necrosis were 0.951 and 0.915, respectively; their diagnostic sensitivities were 94% and 79.6%, respectively, and they both had a diagnostic specificity of 100%.

In patients with acute intestinal necrosis, H19 is overexpressed in necrotic intestinal tissues, from which it is released into the blood circulation and urine. Urinary H19 may serve as a novel and non-invasive biomarker that assists in early diagnosis of acute intestinal necrosis.