The importance of soluble urokinase plasminogen activator receptor in patients with acute brucellosis

Objective: Brucellosis is a common zoonotic infectious disease especially in Mediterranean countries. Inflammatory markers are elevated during the course of acute brucellosis. C-reactive protein (CRP) is the most commonly used biochemical marker in clinical practice. Soluble urokinase type plasminogen activator receptor (suPAR) is an interesting biomarker which has drawn attention recently. Purpose of this study is to examine correlation between suPAR and CRP levels as markers of infectious disease in patients diagnosed with acute brucellosis. Material and Method: This study included 125 acute brucellosis patients and 50 healthy controls. Pretreatment blood samples were taken from the patients. suPAR levels were measured using ELISA and CRP levels were measured with nephelometry. Results: There was a positive correlation between suPAR levels and CRP, alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) (p=0.045, 0.039, 0.040; respectively). When we compared patient and control groups, CRP and suPAR levels were significantly higher than controls (p=0.001, 0.001; respectively). Growth in blood culture was detected in 14 (11.2%) patients. There was not a significant difference between patients who have or did not have growth in blood cultures (p=0.117). In the ROC curve analysis performed for suPAR, area under the curve (AUC) was 93.6% (p=0.001). Sensitivity and specificity were calculated as 84.8% and 86.0%, respectively, when suPAR’s cut-off value was taken as 3.85 ng/mL according to the ROC curve. Conclusion: Results of this study suggest that suPAR, like CRP, is a promising biomarker in acute brucellosis.