Serum activin A as a prognostic biomarker for community acquired pneumonia

Background: It is essential to develop new biomarker with effective prognostic roles because of the unclear clinical use of the current community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) predictors.

Aim: To evaluate the association between serum activin A levels and prognosis in CAP patients.

Methods: A total of 168 CAP individuals grouped according to the severity and prognosis of illness condition, and 48 healthy individuals as the control group were enrolled in this study. Circulating concentrations of activin A were measured using enzyme-linked immunoassays. The interaction between activin A levels and etiologies of CAP was determined. Based on the severity of CAP, 110 patients (65.48%) were categorized into group-I, 42 (25%) cases were grouped into group-II, and 16 (9.52%) cases were categorized into group-III.

Results: Serum activin A levels were higher in patients with CAP than controls, but independent of etiology. Moreover, the scores of Pneumonia Severity Index (PSI) and CURB-65 positively correlated with the increasing levels of serum activin A, and were at their highest peak in individuals in group-III (P < 0.001). Combining activin A with CURB-65 or PSI was more effective in improving predictive property (P < 0.01). According to Cox proportional regression analysis, after adjusting clinical parameters, we confirmed that activin A showed a powerful predictive property for hospital mortality in CAP patients (P < 0.001).

Conclusion: Higher level of serum activin A was associated with poor prognosis of CAP. Activin A can be used as a more valuable biomarker of prognosis in CAP patients.