Relationships of serum MALT1 and sCD146 levels with disease severity and complicated pulmonary embolism in patients with acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

ZENG Ming; XIAO Yongying; JI Yongzhang

doi:10.3969/j.issn.1002-266X.2026.01.007

Abstract：Objective To analyze the relationships between serum levels of mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue lym-phoma translocation protein 1(MALT1)and soluble cluster of differentiation 146(sCD146)and the severity of acute exac-erbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease(AECOPD)as well as the occurrence of pulmonary embolism(PE).Methods A total of 120 AECOPD patients were included as the AECOPD group,and 120 patients with stable COPD(SCOPD)during the same period were included as the SCOPD group.Serum MALT1 and sCD146 levels were measured using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.Based on disease severity,AECOPD patients were divided into mild,moder-ate,and severe AECOPD subgroups.Spearman correlation analysis was used to examine the association between serum MALT1 and sCD146 levels and disease severity in AECOPD patients.Patients were further categorized into PE and non-PE groups based on the occurrence of PE after admission.Receiver operating characteristic(ROC)curve analysis was used to evaluate the predictive performance of serum MALT1 and sCD146 levels for PE in AECOPD patients.Results Com-pared with the SCOPD group,the serum MALT1 level increased and the sCD146 level decreased in the AECOPD group(both P<0.05).The levels of serum MALT1 and sCD146 in the mild AECOPD group were 2.11(1.51,2.77)ng/mL and 48.29(43.23,55.17)ng/mL,respectively.The levels of serum MALT1 and sCD146 in the moderate AECOPD group were 3.88(3.21,4.67)ng/mL and 36.05(31.86,39.50)ng/mL,respectively.The levels of serum MALT1 and sCD146 in the severe AECOPD group were 5.44(5.00,5.98)ng/mL and 25.47(24.39,27.11)ng/mL,respectively.There were significant differences between groups(all P<0.05).The level of serum MALT1 in AECOPD patients was posi-tively correlated with the severity of the disease,and the level of sCD146 was negatively correlated with the severity of the disease(r=0.749,-0.777,both P<0.05).Compared with the non-PE group,serum MALT1 level increased and sCD146 level decreased in the PE group(both P<0.05).The area under the curve of serum MALT1 level in predicting PE in AE-COPD patients was 0.780(95%CI:0.695-0.851).The sensitivity and specificity of serum MALT1 level in predicting PE in AECOPD patients were 0.616 and 0.809,respectively.The area under the curve of serum sCD146 level in predicting PE in AECOPD patients was 0.787(95%CI:0.703-0.857),and the sensitivity and specificity in predicting PE in AECO-PD patients were 0.849 and 0.617,respectively.The area under the curve of serum MALT1 combined with sCD146 in pre-dicting PE in AECOPD patients was 0.867(95%CI:0.793-0.922);the sensitivity and specificity of serum MALT1 com-bined with sCD146 in predicting PE in AECOPD patients were 0.849 and 0.787,respectively.Conclusions Serum MALT1 level increases and sCD146 level decreases in patients with AECOPD,which is related to the severity of the dis-ease.The detection of serum MALT1 and sCD146 levels is helpful for the prediction of AECOPD complicated with PE.