Correlations between serum components and sleep disorders in children with autism spectrum disorder

DING Wen-jun; JIN Jian; DING Wen-cong; YUAN Yang-yang; YUE Yan-ru

doi:10.13820/j.cnki.gdyx.20230124

Abstract：Objective To investigate the correlation between blood components and sleep disturbance in children with autism spectrum disorder(ASD).Methods ASD patients and healthy control subjects were recruited from January 2019 to December 2022.Demographic characteristics were collected upon enrollment.Blood samples were obtained from patients,and plasma orexin levels were measured using ELISA.Independent sample t-tests were used to analyze plasma orexin levels in ASD patients compared to the control group,as well as in mild and severe ASD patients.Spearman corre-lation analysis was performed to examine the relationship between orexin levels,ASD scores,and sleep scores.Receiver operator characteristics(ROC)curve analysis was conducted to assess the predictive value of orexin levels for ASD pa-tients.Results Plasma orexin levels were higher in the ASD group compared to the control group(P＜0.05).Severe ASD patients had higher orexin levels compared to mild ASD patients(P＜0.05).Serum orexin levels were higher in the poor sleep group than in the good sleep group(P＜0.05).Spearman correlation analysis showed a positive correlation be-tween orexin levels and ASD scores(r=0.887,P＜0.001),and a negative correlation between orexin levels and sleep scores(r=-0.821,P＜0.001).The ROC curve analysis revealed an area under ROC curve(AUC)of 0.675 for orexin levels in severe ASD patients,which was statistically significant(P＜0.05).Conclusion This study suggests that chil-dren with ASD have elevated orexin levels that correlate with the severity of their condition.Moreover,orexin levels hold predictive value for the prognosis of ASD patients.