Abstract:

Objective To evaluate the diagnosis significance of plasma lipopolysaccharide (LPS) determination for Gram-negative bacterium (GNB) infection in organ transplantation recipients. Methods The clinical data of 160 liver transplantation and kidney transplantation patients were analyzed retrospectively. According to the results of bacterium isolation culturing, there were 2 groups, GNB group and control group. The LPS concentrations were determined by dynamic turbidimetric assay. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to analyze the diagnosis significance of LPS for GNB infection. Results LPS in GNB group was 33.58(22.12, 73.59)pg/mL, while it in control group was 5.00(5.00,9.78)pg/mL. The difference was statistically significant (P<0.05). The area under ROC curve was 0.834 (95% confidence interval 0.764-0.903). The LPS determination sensitivity and specificity were 81.01% and 88.89%, respectively, at the cut-off value of 20 pg/mL. Conclusions LPS is an effective diagnosis biomarker for GNB infection in organ transplantation recipients.

Key words: Lipopolysaccharide, Gram-negative bacterium, Organ transplantation, Diagnosis