Long non-coding RNA H19 as a diagnostic marker in peripheral blood of patients with sepsis

To evaluate the diagnostic and prognostic value of circulating long non-coding RNA H19 (H19) in sepsis.

A total of 104 septic patients admitted to our hospital from June 2018 to April 2019 were enrolled as the disease group, and another 92 healthy individuals were selected as the control group. The relative expression of H19 in peripheral blood was quantified by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction, and the diagnostic value in sepsis was assessed by receiver operating characteristic curve analysis. Pearson correlation coefficient was used to analyze the correlation between H19 and other inflammatory markers.

Compared with the control group, the expression of peripheral blood H19 in the disease group was significantly down-regulated. The area under the curve (AUC) of H19 for diagnosing sepsis was 0.849. The expression of H19 in the survival group was significantly up-regulated compared with that in the death group, and the AUC in the survival group was 0.865. The relative expression of H19 was negatively correlated with PCT, CRP, IL-6, TNF-α, CK-MB, and cTnI. Multivariate logistic regression showed that patients with high lactic acid, coagulation dysfunction, high levels of PCT, CRP, IL-6, TNF-α, CK-MB, and cTnI, but low H19 expression had an increased risk of sepsis.

Peripheral blood H19 may be used for early diagnosis, clinical assessment, and prognosis of sepsis.