Diagnostic and prognostic value of pentraxin-3 in pulmonary thromboembolism

Objective: We aimed to investigate the role of pentraxin-3 (PTX-3) during diagnostic workup of pulmonary thromboembolism (PTE) and to compare PTX-3 levels with other currently used prognostic parameters. Material-Method: In this prospective case-control study, patients evaluated for suspected PTE and undergoing computed tomography pulmonary angiography (CTPA) were evaluated in two groups according to CTPA results. This study which was conducted between December 2020 and September 2021, with 91 patients in Group 1 (with PTE) and 77 patients in Group 2 (without PTE), a total of 168 patients. Demographic data, clinical features, Wells scores, laboratory results of both groups; pulmonary emboli severity index (PESI), transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) findings, therapies, right ventricle/left ventricle (RV/LV) ratios in CTPA, Mastora and Qanadli indices, 30 and 90-day mortality data of patients with PTE were noted. Blood was sampled from all patients at the time of admission and later analysed by ELISA for PTX-3. Results: Age, gender, and incidence of comorbid diseases were similar between the groups. There was no significant difference between the PTX-3 levels of the two groups. The PTX-3 median value was 2.39 (0.38) ng/ml for group 1; 2.4 (0.4) ng/ml was measured for group 2 (p: 0.614). There was no correlation between PTX-3 and PESI, RV/LV ratio, Mastora index, Qanadli index, B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP), troponin-I, D-dimer, length of hospital stay. A very strong correlation was found between Mastora and Qanadli indices (r: 0.938; p <0.001). Correlation was observed between clot burden indices and length of hospital stay, D-dimer and RV/LV. In the 30 and 90-day mortality analyzes in Group 1, hypoalbuminemia was found to increase mortality (p: 0.036; p: 0.004, respectively); while PTX-3 level was found to be unrelated to mortality (p: 0.697, p: 0.687, respectively). Conlusion: Results of recent study do not support the use of PTX-3 as a diagnostic and prognostic marker for PTE. Further studies with larger numbers of patients and longer follow-up periods are needed to confirm the results of the present study.