Elevated endothelial dysfunction-related biomarker levels indicate the severity and predict sepsis incidence

Area of Science:

• Critical Care Medicine
• Biomarker Discovery
• Sepsis Pathophysiology

Background:

• Sepsis is a life-threatening organ dysfunction caused by dysregulated host response to infection.
• Endothelial dysfunction plays a crucial role in sepsis progression and organ damage.
• Identifying reliable biomarkers for early sepsis detection and severity assessment is critical.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the relationship between serum syndecan-1 and soluble thrombomodulin (sTM) levels and organ dysfunction severity in septic patients.
• To evaluate the predictive value of these biomarkers for sepsis and septic shock.
• To compare the predictive performance of syndecan-1 and sTM in septic patients.

Main Methods:

• A cohort of 105 patients admitted to the Critical Care Medicine department were enrolled.
• Serum levels of syndecan-1 and sTM were measured using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.
• Patients were categorized into infection, septic non-shock, and septic shock groups for analysis.

Main Results:

• Serum syndecan-1 and sTM levels were significantly elevated in septic patients compared to the infection group.
• Both syndecan-1 and sTM levels positively correlated with the Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) scores, indicating severity of organ dysfunction.
• Syndecan-1 demonstrated a higher predictive value for sepsis (AUC 0.95) and septic shock (AUC 0.95) than sTM (AUC 0.87 and 0.88, respectively).

Conclusions:

• Serum syndecan-1 and sTM levels are associated with organ dysfunction severity in sepsis.
• These biomarkers are valuable for the early identification of sepsis.
• Syndecan-1 is a particularly strong predictor for identifying septic shock in critically ill patients.