Chest
Volume 108, Issue 2, August 1995, Pages 311-315
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Clinical Investigations; Articles; Interstitial Lung Disease
KL-6: A Serum Marker for Interstitial Pneumonia

https://doi.org/10.1378/chest.108.2.311Get rights and content

KL-6 is a mucinous high-molecular weight glycoprotein, expressed on type 2 pneumonocytes, which is reported to be elevated in the serum and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid of patients with interstitial pneumonia. A total of 118 samples from 112 patients were measured, including 51 samples with three classes of interstitial lung disease and 67 samples with 6 classes of noninterstitial lung diseases, in order to clarify whether it was a useful marker of pneumonitis activity. The KL-6 level was significantly higher in patients with pneumonitis (1,187±689 U/mL; range, 224 to 2,656 U/mL) than in patients without pneumonitis (309±157 U/mL; range, 123 to 855 U/mL). The KL-6 level was also significantly higher in patients with clinically active pneumonitis (1,497±560) compared with inactive pneumonitis (441±276) (p<0.001). The optimal criterion for separating patients with active pneumonitis from patients without pneumonitis was a KL-6 level of 500 to 700 U/mL according to receiver operating characteristic analysis. These results suggest that KL-6 is a useful marker for the clinical diagnosis of pneumonitis and for the evaluation of disease activity. (CHEST 1995; 108:311-315

Section snippets

Subjects

The subjects of this study consisted of 112 patients admitted to the Department of Pulmonary Medicine between 1987 and 1994. There were 12 patients with bacterial pneumonia, 7 with aspergillus infection, 10 with bronchial asthma, 14 with pulmonary emphysema, 14 with bronchiectasis, 10 with pulmonary tuberculosis, 10 with hypersensitivity pneumonitis (HP), 16 with pneumonitis related to collagen diseases, and 19 with idiopathic interstitial pneumonia (IIP). Additional blood samples were also

Results

A total of 118 samples from 112 patients were measured, including 51 samples with three classes of interstitial lung disease and 67 samples with 6 classes of noninterstitial lung diseases. A summary of the data are shown in Figure 1. The KL-6 value was elevated in the patients with interstitial lung diseases (1,187±689 U/mL; range, 224 to 2,656 U/mL), compared with those without pneumonitis (309±157 U/mL; range, 123 to 855 U/mL). The mean value in the patients with IP was significantly higher

Discussion

The management of IP is difficult, because its prognosis is usually poor and useful markers of disease activity have not been established.1,3 Chest radiography, lung function testing, blood gas analysis, and determination of the serum C-reactive protein and LDH are usually used during management of this disease, the information provided is generally nonspecific, and it is of Ten influenced by bacterial infection or inflammatory processes affecting other organs.2 In addition, these variables are

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