Biomarkers associated with bronchopulmonary dysplasia/mortality in premature infants

BACKGROUND: Bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) portends lifelong organ impairment and death. Our ability to predict BPD in first days of life is limited, but could be enhance using novel biomarkers. METHODS: Using an available clinical and urine biomarker database obtained from a prospective 113 infant cohort (birth weight ≤1200 g and/or gestational age ≤31 weeks), we evaluated the independent association of 14 urine biomarkers with BPD/mortality. RESULTS: Two of the 14 urine biomarkers were independently associated with BPD/mortality after controlling for gestational age (GA), small for gestational age (SGA), and intubation status. The best performing protein was clusterin, a ubiquitously expressed protein and potential sensor of oxidative stress associated with lung function in asthma patients. When modeling for BPD/mortality, the independent odds ratio for maximum adjusted urine clusterin was 9.2 (95% CI 3.3 - 32.8, P<0.0001). In this model, clinical variables (GA, intubation status, and SGA) explained 38.3% of variance; clusterin explained an additional 9.2%, while albumin explained an additional 3.4%. The area under the curve incorporating clinical factors and biomarkers was 0.941. CONCLUSIONS: Urine clusterin and albumin may improve our ability to predict BPD/mortality. Future studies are needed to validate these findings and determine their clinical usefulness.