[Clinical significance of detection of serum hyaluronic acid concentration in severe burn patients]

To study the relationship between the changes in serum hyaluronic acid (HA) concentrations and injury of hepatocytes in severe burn patients.Radioimmunoassay and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) were used to detect HA and tumor necrosis factor-alpha(TNF-alpha) concentrations in serum, and biochemical indexes for hepatic function and renal function in burn patients that were divided into different groups: systemic inflammatory response syndrome(SIRS), multiple organ dysfunction syndrome(MODS). Multiple organ failure(MOF) and non-surviving patient groups.In two weeks after burns, the serum HA concentration attained a high level. With the increase of severity of disease, the values of the serum HA concentration were elevated progressively (P0.001). At the onset of MOF till death, the serum HA content was rapidly decreased. Lineal correlation analysis indicated that the change in the serum HA concentration was closely correlated with SIRS, burn sepsis, MODS and death (P0.01). It was positively correlated with TNF-alpha, aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and total bilirubin (P0.05 or P0.01), and negatively correlated with plasma albumin and albumin/globulin(both P0.05).The increment in serum HA levels is relate with the impairment of the hepatic endothelial cells due to TNF-alpha etc. The HA content in serum can be used as a sensitive indicator for judging injury of liver, seriousness of the injury, and prognosis of the patient.