Postoperative serum CHI3L1 level is associated with postoperative cognitive dysfunction in elderly patients after hip fracture surgery: A prospective observational study

OBJECTIVES: Postoperative cognitive dysfunction (POCD) is a common postoperative complication in older patients. Chitinase-3-like-1 protein (CHI3L1) is identified as a neuroinflammatory biomarker and impairs cognitive function. This study aimed to evaluate the association between serum levels of CHI3L1 and POCD and explore the levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6), IL-1β and C-reactive protein (CRP) in the elderly after total hip arthroplasty (THA). PATIENTS AND METHODS: A total of 76 elderly patients undergoing THA were enrolled in the prospective observational study. Serum CHI3L1 levels were measured 1 day before and 1 day after surgery and other perioperative factors were also noted. The correlations between mediators of inflammation in the two groups were compared via Spearman correlation coefficients. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were implemented to analyze the predictive values of serum CHI3L1 and other inflammatory factors for POCD. And factors associated with POCD were analyzed by univariate and multivariate logistics. RESULTS: POCD was observed in 31.6% of patients 1 week after surgery. Postoperative serum CHI3L1 levels were higher in POCD patients than in non-POCD patients [1348.26(778.46–1889.77) VS 2322.86(1686.88–2517.35) ng/ml, P < 0.001]. Postoperative serum CHI3L1 level was positively correlated with postoperative IL-6 level (r = 0.284, P = 0.013). Compared with IL-6, IL-1β, and CRP, postoperative CHI3L1 level has the highest predictive value for POCD with the area under the curve (AUC) value of 0.779 according to the ROC curve. By the multivariate logistic regression analysis, elevated postoperative serum CHI3L1 level was found to be an independent risk factor for POCD 1 week after surgery (odds ratio = 1.204, 95% confidence interval = 1.087–1.332, P = 0.001). CONCLUSION: Postoperative elevated serum CHI3L1 level was significantly associated with the incident of POCD, and positively correlated with postoperative IL-6 level in the elderly after THA. This biomarker may have potential utility for further elucidating the etiology of POCD.