RESUMEN
Objective To investigate concentration of plasma neutrophil gelatinase -associated lipocalin ( NGAL) and its clinical significance in ICU populations with sepsis.Methods Fourteen ICU patients diagnosed with sepsis and twenty-four patients with non-sepsis were enrolled in the study,and seventeen healthy adults were selected as healthy control.Blood samples were drawn from patients to measure NGAL, and Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation ( APACHE ) II and Sequential Organ Failure Assessment ( SOFA ) were performed, the outcome was recorded.Plasma NGAL concentration was measured by enzyme -linked immunosorbent assay ( ELISA) .Results On admission to ICU, the pNGAL concentrations of septic and non -septic patients were (131.4 ±116.4)ng/mL and (48.7 ±30.8)ng/mL respectively,which of healthy control was (39.07 ±12.74)ng/mL.The pNGAL was significantly higher in sepsis than non-sepsis and healthy control ( t=-3.280,3.313,P=0.003,0.021 respectively).Otherwise,no differences of white blood cell (WBC) count [(12.6 ±5.7) ×109/L vs (15.6 ±5.8) ×109/L] and SOFA scores [(7.7 ±3.3)points vs (8.6 ±3.4)points] were found in septic and non-septic patients (t=-1.554,-0.802,P=0.129,0.428).On the admission to ICU,areas under the receiver oper-ating characteristic curves ( ROC curves) of NGAL and WBC for predicting sepsis were 0.740 [95%confident inter-val(CI) 0.566,0.913,P =0.015] and 0.345 ( 95%CI 0.158,0.533,P =0.116) respectively.If pNGAL of 99.4ng/mL as the threshold for predicting sepsis, the sensitivity and the specificity was 50.0% and 85.2%. Conclusion The concentrations of NGAL in septic patients significantly increased compared with that in non-sepsis and in healthy adults.And the NGAL levels maybe another sensitive biochemical marker for predicting infection.