Abstract: Objective  To investigate the value of serum LncRNA NEAT1 in predicting acute kidney injury (AKI) in patients with sepsis.  Methods  A total of 163 cases of patients with sepsis admitted to the Department of Intensive Care Medicine in our hospital were selected from May 2018 to May 2021. The expression of nuclear enriched abundant transcript 1 (NEAT1) in the serum was detected by using qRT-PCR. The value of the expression of NEAT1 in the serum in predicting the occurrence of AKI in patients with sepsis was analyzed by using receiver operating characteristic curve(ROC).   Results   Among 163 cases of patients with sepsis, 67 cases occurred AKI (AKI group), with an incidence rate of 41.10%, and the rest seemed as the control group. The differences of the time from onset to intensive care unit (ICU) admission, sequential organ failure assessment (SOFA) score, serum creatinine(Scr), lactate, estimated glomerular filtration rate(eGFR), plasma infusion and red blood cell (RBC) infusion between the two groups were statistically significant (t=8.698, P＜0.001; t =8.134, P＜0.001; t=13.978, P＜0.001; t=2.383, P=0.018; t=4.177, P＜0.001; t=6.609, P＜0.001 and t=2.453, P=0.015). The relative expression level of NEAT1 in the serum in the AKI group was 1.90±0.26, which was higher than 1.46±0.32 in the control group, and the difference was statistically significant (t=9.314, P＜0.001). Logistic regression analysis showed that Scr, plasma infusion and the expression of NEAT1 were risk factors for AKI occurring in patients with sepsis (OR=1.263, 95% CI=1.052～1.515, P=0.012; OR=1.063, 95% CI=1.007～1.122, P=0.026; OR=4.897, 95% CI=1.392～17.233, P=0.013). ROC curve analysis results showed that the area under the curve of the expression of NEAT1 in serum for predicting the occurrence of AKI in patients with sepsis was 0.853 (95% CI: 0.796～0.910). When the expression level of NEAT1 in serum was 1.60, the sensitivity was 88.06%, and the specificity was 64.58%.  Conclusion  The expression level of NEAT1 in the serum of patients with sepsis complicated with AKI is increased. It is a risk factor for AKI occurring in patients with sepsis, and it has certain predictive value for the occurrence of AKI in patients.

Key words: Sepsis, Acute kidney injury, LncRNA NEAT1, Receiver operating characteristic curve