Study on the correlation between YKL-40 and Parkinson's disease

Objective To investigate the value of YKL-40 in diagnosing Parkinson's disease (PD).  Methods Blood samples of 63 PD patients and 60 healthy controls were collected in this study. YKL-40 levels were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) and Hoehn-Yahr (H-Y) stage were used to assess the ability of daily life, motor funciton and disease severity of PD patients. Then the correlation between YKL-40 and motor symptoms of PD was analyzed by Spearman's rank correlation analysis. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to investigate the sensitivity and specificity of YKL-40 in diagnosing PD.  Results The YKL-40 levels in PD patients were (3.72 ± 0.10) ng/ml, which was significantly higher than that in healthy controls [(2.92 ± 0.18) ng/ml; t = 4.141, P = 0.000]. Spearman analysis indicated that there was positive correlation between YKL-40 and UPDRS scores ( r s = 0.872,  P = 0.000), and between YKL-40 and H-Y stage ( r s = 0.704,  P = 0.000). ROC curve indicated that the sensitivity and specificity of YKL-40 in diagnosing PD was 95.26% and 73.34% , respectively.  Conclusions There was a correlation between YKL-40 and the severity of PD, so YKL-40 can be used as a biomarker in diagnosing PD. doi: 10.3969/j.issn.1672-6731.2014.12.014