Urine Myoglobin is Associated with Different Severities and Depths for Burn Patients

Abstract Backgrounds It is important to make reasonable clinical decision based on precise burn depth for burn specialists. However, the identification of burn depth based upon clinical assessment was not accurate. It still needs more biomarkers to rapidly distinguish different depths for burn specialists. The potential value of urine myoglobin (UM) is still unknown in burn patients. Patients and methods The urine of 30 burn patients and 10 Healthy volunteers (Discover set) were collected from January 2017 to December 2020. Urine proteomics of all samples was identified by Label-free mass spectrometry and functional analysis for differential expression proteins (DEPs) was also analyzed. The Receiver Operating Characteristic curve to evaluate the value of UM from another 67 burn patients (Validation set). Results A total of 8253 peptides and 1465 proteins were identified in four groups. For severe burn patients, 402 DEPs (279 up-regulated and 123 down-regulated) were identified and functional analysis demonstrated that neutrophil-mediated immunity, response to stimulus, and complement and coagulation cascades pathway were the most enrichment function. UM had significant differences in burn patients with different severities and depths (Discover and Validation set; P<0.05). UM as a novel biomarker could rapidly distinguish different depths for burn patients (Discover set, AUC=0.8203, 95%CI: 0.6448~0.9957; Validation set, AUC=0.7393, 95%CI: 0.618~0.8606). Conclusion The urine DEPs were mainly identified in the severe group. UM might as a novel biomarker help burn specialists to rapidly determine different depths for burn patients.