Diagnostic accuracy of adropin as a preliminary test to exclude acute pulmonary embolism: a prospective study

BACKGROUND: This study aims to investigate the diagnostic accuracy of adropin as a biomarker to exclude the diagnosis of acute pulmonary embolism (PE). METHODS: Patients admitted to the emergency department of a tertiary health centre between August 2019 and August 2020 and diagnosed with PE were included in this prospective cohort study. The amount of serum adropin was determined in patients with (PE) and compared with that of healthy volunteers. Receiver operating characteristic analysis was performed with the obtained data, and the area under the curve (AUC) with a 95% confidence interval was determined. The parameters of diagnostic accuracy for PE were determined. RESULTS: A total of 57 participants were included in the study (28 controls and 29 PE patients). The mean adropin level in the PE group was 187.33 ± 62.40 pg/ml, which was significantly lower than that in the control group (524.06 ± 421.68 pg/ml) (p < 0.001). When the optimal adropin cut-off value was 213.78 pg/ml, the likelihood ratio of the adropin test was 3.4, and the sensitivity of the adropin test at this value was 82% with specificity of 75% (95% CI; AUC: 0.821). CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that adropin may be considered for further study as a candidate marker for the exclusion of the diagnosis of PE. However, more research is required to verify and support the generalizability of our study results.