Background: Despite great advances in the treatment of burn patients, useful prognostic markers are sparse. During the past years there has been increasing interest in circulating plasma cell free DNA as a potential marker for tissue injury. We have developed a rapid direct fluorescent assay for cell free DNA quantification that allows obtaining accurate, fast, and inexpensive measurements.
Objective: To use this technique for measuring plasma cell free DNA levels in burn patients and to further explore the use of cell free DNA as a potential marker of patient outcome in burns.
Methods: Cell free DNA levels obtained from 14 burn victims within 6 hours of injury and 14 healthy controls were quantified by a direct rapid fluorometric assay.
Results: Patient admission cell free DNA levels were significantly elevated compared with that of controls (1797 ± 1523 ng/mL versus 374 ± 245 ng/mL, P = 0.004). There are statistically significant correlations between cell free DNA admission levels and burn degree (Spearman's correlation = 0.78, P = 0.001), total body surface area (Spearman's correlation = 0.61, P = 0.02), and total burn volume (Spearman's correlation = 0.64, P = 0.014).
Conclusions: Admission cell free DNA levels can serve as a prognostic factor in burns and future routine use can be made possible by use of our direct rapid fluorometric assay.