Krebs von den Lungen-6 associated with chest high-resolution CT score in evaluation severity of patients with interstitial lung disease

Abstract

Aims: The purpose of this prospective, single-center study was to measure the value of Krebs von den Lungen-6 (KL-6), a kind of transmembrane mucoprotein, in diagnosing interstitial lung disease (ILD) and in assessing the severity of ILD. Methods: We enrolled 184 patients and 30 healthy controls. Ninety-eight patients were diagnosed with ILD, 47 with pneumonia, 19 with non-small cell lung cancer without ILD (NSCLC/non-ILD) and 20 with other lung diseases. Serum KL-6 levels, CT scores of high-resolution computerised tomography (HRCT) and pulmonary function in ILD patients were assessed. Results: The mean value of serum KL-6 in patients with ILD, pneumonia, NSCLC/non-ILD, other lung diseases and healthy controls were 1000.67 ± 882.73 U/ml, 234.11 ± 91.02 U/ml, 269.95 ± 149.23 U/ml, 234.85 ± 83.51 U/ml and 189.03 ± 55.50 U/ml, respectively. Serum KL-6 levels of patients with ILD were significantly higher than that of other groups (P < 0.000). The level of serum KL-6 in patients with pneumonia, NSCLC/non-ILD and other lung diseases was also statistically higher than healthy controls (P < 0.05). When the cut-off value was 312 U/ml, the sensitivity and specificity of KL-6 for the diagnosis of ILD was 84.7% and 85.3% respectively (AUC: 0.936, 95% CI: 0.906–0.965). The serum KL-6 levels in patients with ILD were significantly positively correlated with the CT scores (r = 0.539, P = 0.000) and negatively correlated with DLCO (r = −0.513, P = 0.000). Conclusion: Serum KL-6 might be useful in the diagnosis of ILD, especially in the hard-to-diagnose cases, with high sensitivity and specificity. Furthermore, KL-6 might be a valuable marker for evaluation of ILD severity. Keywords: Interstitial lung disease, Pneumonia, Krebs von den Lungen-6, Computed tomography, Pulmonary function test