Prognostic Significance of Ischemia-Modified Albumin Levels in Community-Acquired Pneumonia Cases

Abstract

Background: Community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) is an important public\nhealth problem because of its high morbidity, mortality, and health care\ncosts. Many biomarkers have been used to determine the severity and\nprognosis of pneumonia. Ischemia-modified albumin (IMA) is a marker of\nthe recently used oxidant-antioxidant mechanism and has been found to\nincrease in many inflammatory conditions. Objectives: To investigate the\nrole of the levels of IMA in CAP and to evaluate its relationship with\npneumonia severity. Methods: A total of 150 patients with a diagnosis of\nCAP and 150 healthy individuals were included in the study. IMA levels\nwere evaluated in both groups. The patients with CAP were divided into\nambulatory, ward and intensive care groups, and their IMA levels were\ncompared. Results: There was no significant difference between the two\ngroups in terms of age or gender (p > 0.05 for both). No\nsignificant difference was observed in the IMA levels of the patient and\ncontrol groups (p ˃ 0.05). The lowest IMA level was observed in the\nambulatory group (p = 0.001). When the patients in the ambulatory and\nhospitalized (ward and intensive care together) groups were evaluated,\nthe cut-off value of IMA was 77.60 ABSU, sensitivity was 64.9%,\nspecificity was 75.0%, positive predictive value was 89.2%, and\nnegative predictive value was 40.3%. Conclusion: In the management of\npatients with CAP, IMA seems to be a useful marker for CAP severity and\nhospitalization decision. Keywords: Community-acquired pneumonia,\nischemia-modified albumin, biomarker