Plasma level of M-CSF was independently related to 30-day survival in patients with suspected sepsis, and correlated to pathogen load: A prospective cohort study.

DOI: 10.14800/ics.1186

Abstract

The purpose of our study was to screen the plasma cytokines to find possible indicators of disease progression and prognosis of patients with infection. With a prospective cohort study, selected patients were divided into sepsis group and non-sepsis group. Demographic and clinical information were collected. Blood samples were tested for the levels of plasma cytokines and metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS). 30-day follow-up information was recorded, and data was analyzed by SPSS22.0 (SPSS Inc, Chicago, IL). A total of 95 patients were selected. After propensity score matching of age and gender, 36 patients with sepsis and 36 with non-sepsis were enrolled. 30-day follow-up data exhibited that 41 patients died and 31 survived. Patients with sepsis and 30-day death had higher plasma levels of cytokines, including macrophage-stimulating factor (M-CSF), monocyte chemoattractant protein-3 (MCP-3), etc., than patients with non-sepsis and 30-day survival, respectively. M-CSF > 8.21pg/ml was an independent risk factor for 30-day death, and the reads of pathogens in mNGS reports was positively correlated with the plasma concentrations of various cytokines, including M-CSF.