ABSTRACT
Objective To assess the clinical significance of SAA, IP-10 and PCT in the diagnosis of AECOPD. Methods Sixty AECOPD patients, 52 with sCOPD, and 28 healthy subjects were assigned to three groups. Clinical data and serum specimen were obtained from another 19 AECOPD patients at stable stage as AECOPD-sCOPD group. Serum levels of SAA, IP10 and PCT were quantitatively measured by ELISA. Levels of multiple serum markers were statistically compared among different groups. Results The concentration of SAA significantly differed between the AECOPD and sCOPD groups (P 0.05). Conclusions As compared with the sCOPD group, levels of serum SAA and IP-10 in the AECOPD group were significantly elevated, which is helpful in the diagnosis of AECOPD with a sensitivity and specificity of 100% and 54.9%for SAA, and 96.1%and 75.0%for IP-10. However, PCT level failed to identify AECOPD from sCOPD.