Heparin-Binding Protein: A Prognostic Biomarker Associated with Severe or Complicated Community-Acquired Pneumonia in Children

Abstract

Purpose Heparin-binding protein (HBP) is a novel biomarker for inflammatory diseases. This study aimed to investigate the role of serum HBP in community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) in children and the association of HBP with the severity and prognosis. Patients and Methods A total of 125 children with CAP admitted to the hospital were enrolled in this retrospective study. We analyzed the differences in clinical characteristics and examination findings between patients with different levels of HBP. The severe or complicated CAP was defined as having severe radiographic findings and/or systemic manifestations. Receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curves detected the performance of biomarkers in identifying patients with severe or complicated pneumonia. The multivariate logistic regression models assessed the association between HBP levels and the severity and prognosis. Finally, we constructed a predictive model based on HBP. Results The rate of severe or complicated CAP for patients with upper-quartile HBP concentration (≥60 ng/mL) was 54.8%, significantly higher than that of patients with lower HBP concentration (26.6%). The level of HBP is substantially correlated with neutrophil counts, C-reactive protein, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, and serum amyloid A protein (r = 0.31, 0.26, 0.36, and 0.26, respectively). HBP achieved the highest level of discrimination for severe or complicated CAP among the biomarkers. Higher HBP concentration (≥60 ng/mL) was associated with a three-fold higher risk of severe or complicated CAP (adjusted odds ratio = 3.11, p < 0.05). A predictive model including four characteristics (HBP, lactate dehydrogenase, age and non-viral infection) for predicting severe or complicated CAP (with area under the ROC curve = 0.75) was built to create a nomogram. Conclusion Substantially elevated serum HBP is significantly associated with severe or complicated CAP and poor prognosis in children. This finding warrants further investigation of the function of HBP in the pathogenesis of CAP.

Diagnostic value of plasma heparin-binding protein and the heparin-binding protein-to-albumin ratio in patients with community-acquired Pneumonia: a retrospective study

“…In the present study, we discovered that an elevated HBP level at admission was not significantly correlated with the length of hospital stays in CAP patients and could not be used to predict patient prognosis. Conversely, other investigations demonstrated that high HBP was strongly related with a bad outcome in CAP patients [25,26]. Different definitions of prognosis in different studies may account for this divergence, whereas in this analysis prognosis was defined as length of hospital stays.…”

Screening and Application of DNA Aptamers for Heparin-Binding Protein

“…Therefore, HBP is primarily utilized as a potential biomarker for sepsis [39,40]. Compared to PCT and CRP, HBP exhibits earlier and more sensitive elevation, making it imperative to develop faster and more portable detection methods for this marker [41].…”

Dynamics of platelet parameters in children with severe community-acquired pneumonia between viral and bacterial infections

“…In 2019, approximately 740,180 children aged ≤5 years died of pneumonia ( 1 ). The incidence of CAP in children under 5 years of age in China is 65.8 per 1,000 person-years, with 12–20% of patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) ( 2 ). For children with severe CAP, clinicians urgently need to identify viral or bacterial infections at an early stage to provide corresponding anti-infective treatment in time and improve poor prognosis ( 3 , 4 ).…”