Detection of negative acute phase reactant fetuin-A level in patients with pulmonary embolism

INTRODUCTION: Pulmonary Thromboembolism (PTE) is a clinical condition with a high mortality rate and various difficulties in diagnosis. The fact that scintigraphy, which may be necessary for diagnosis, and angiography, which is the gold standard for diagnosis, can only be performed in certain centers causes diagnostic efforts to be inadequate in some cases. New markers are needed for early diagnosis and prognostic process in this disease. The aim of this study is to determine the diagnostic value of plasma Fetuin-A test in patients with complaints, examinations and nonspecific laboratory findings suggesting PTE and to investigate its usability as a criterion in PTE disease diagnosis.
METHODS: This study was designed as a prospective, observational case-control study comprising 31 PTE patients and 30 controls.
RESULTS: It was determined that there was no significant difference between the patient and control groups in terms of age and gender (p=0.886, p=0.898). There were statistically significant results for white blood cell, albumin, sedimentation rate, C-reactive protein and Fetuin-A values among the groups in our study (p<0.05). It was observed that the difference in Fetuin-A levels in patients who exited due to PTE was not statistically significant (p=0.698).
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: Fetuin-A levels were found to be low in patients with acute pulmonary embolism. This finding is consistent with the results of other studies defining Fetuin-A as a negative acute phase reactant. No significant correlation was found between Fetuin-A levels and mortality in patients with pulmonary embolism.

Keywords: Pulmonary Embolism, Fetuin-A, Deep Vein Thrombosis