Abstract:

In order to explore the relationship between CD44 and upstream and downstream related cytokines and the development and prognosis of active pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB), a retrospective study was conducted. Eighty-six PTB patients from the Department of Infectious Diseases, Leshan People’s Hospital between January 2018 and July 2019 were collected as the observation group, and the control group included 40 healthy subjects having physical examination in the same period. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was used to detect the expression levels of CD44, interferon-γ (IFN-γ) and tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α). The results showed that the expression levels of CD44, TNF-α and IFN-γ in the observation group before treatment and 6 months after treatment (before treatment: (54.37±8.26) μmol/L, (42.72±6.12) μmol/L and (35.83±5.14) μmol/L, respectively; after 6 months of treatment: (20.14±3.25) μmol/L, (11.38±1.52) μmol/L and (16.42±2.57) μmol/L, respectively) were all significantly higher than those in the control group ((12.16±1.42) μmol/L, (5.38±1.06) μmol/L and (7.52±1.22) μmol/L, respectively) (t values were 21.147, 26.528, 20.712, 8.106, 9.132, 11.614, respectively; all P=0.000). In the observation group, the expression levels of CD44, TNF-α and IFN-γ 6 months after treatment were significantly lower than those before treatment (t values were 10.713, 18.552, 16.124, all P=0.000). The value of CD44 expression level in predicting PTB was analyzed using receiver operating characteristic curve. The area under the curve was 0.84 (95%CI: 0.77-0.91), the cut-off value was 26.74 μmol/L, and the sensitivity was 90.3%, he specificity was 86.4%, which indicated that detecting the expression level of CD44 in peripheral blood may have diagnostic and prognostic value for PTB.

Key words: Tuberculosis, pulmonary, Antigens, CD44, Diagnosis, Prognosis, Evaluation studies