Value of serum nuclear factor kappa B and CD64 in diagnosing bacterial infectious diseases

Objective  To investigate the efficiencies of serum nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) and neutrophil CD64 in the diagnosing bacterial infectious diseases.

Methods  A total of 124 patients with bacterial infection were selected as research group, and 78 healthy patients with matched age and gender in the same period were selected as control group. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and flow cytometry were used to detect the serum NF-κB level and CD64 in the peripheral blood, and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was drawn to analyze the efficiencies of NF-κB and CD64 in diagnosing bacterial infection. Patients in the research group were further divided into severe infection group with 52 cases and general infection group with 72 cases, univariate analysis was used to explore the related factors affecting the occurrence of severe infection in patients with bacterial infection, and multivariate Logistic regression model was used to analyze the risk factors causing severe infection.

Results  NF-κB and CD64 in the research group were significantly higher than those in the control group (P < 0.01). The optimal cut-off value of NF-κB and CD64 for diagnosing bacterial infection alone was 42.35 ng/mL and 0.41% respectively, the area under the curve (AUC)of ROC curve was 0.759 and 0.796 respectively, the sensitivity was 86.54% and 88.46% respectively, and the specificity was 87.50% and 88.89% respectively; when the NF-κB was combined with CD64 for diagnosis, the AUC was 0.937, and the sensitivity and specificity were 96.15% and 95.83% respectively. Univariate analysis showed that the ratios of patients with body temperature≥38 ℃, procalcitonin≥0.08 μg/L, high sensitivity C reactive protein≥26 mg/L, hemoglobin≤120 g/L, NF-κB≥42.35 ng/mL, white blood cell (WBC)≥10×10⁹ and CD64≥0.41% in the severe infection group were significantly higher than those in the general infection group (P < 0.05). Multivariate Logistic regression analysis showed that NF-κB≥42.35 ng/mL and CD64≥0.41% were the independent risk factors for severe bacterial infection (P < 0.05).

Conclusion  Both NF-κB and CD64 increase in patients with bacterial infection, and the combined detection of NF-κB and CD64 can improve the diagnostic efficiency for bacterial infection and reflect the severity of the disease.