Comparison of blood biomarkers (sTREM-1, C-reactive protein (CRP), CHI3L1 and WBC) levels in pediatric patients with pneumonia

Introduction Pneumonia which is a form of acute lower respiratory tract infection, affects the lung parenchyma and destructs alveolar air space. Pneumonia continues to be a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in children. An institutional cross-sectional study was employed. Aim The aim of this study specifically focused on dynamically monitoring the levels of specific biomarkers, including C-reactive protein (CRP), soluble triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cell (s-TREM), Chitinase-3-like protein 1 (CHI3L1) and white blood cell (WBC) in the blood (serum) of children with pneumonia. Material and methods The study involved 120 children diagnosed with pneumonia in Iraq, classified into different age groups. In total, 53 individuals with pneumonia infection were investigated. Biomarker levels including sTREM-1, CRP, CHI3L1, and WBC were analyzed to assess the severity of the disease. The data was collected from November 2023 to April 2024 and analyzed using SPSS software and Microsoft Excel 2019. Pearson’s correlation was used to evaluate the relationship between biomarker levels and pneumonia severity. Results and discussion The results indicated that pneumonia was more frequent in children of under 5 years old. Interestingly, sTREM-1 level was consistently higher than other biomarkers, while WBC counts were the lowest among all biomarkers in all ages and pneumonia cases of study children. These differences were statistically significant, meaning they are likely not random findings. Conclusions sTREM-1 followed by CHI3L1 may be more useful tools for identifying pneumonia and assessing its severity in young children compared to traditional biomarkers like WBC and CRP.