Objective To investigate the value of serum lactate dehydrogenase levels in predicting the severity and prognosis of children with sepsis.

Methods The clinical data of 90 children with sepsis in the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) were analyzed retrospectively. They were divided into sepsis group (n = 47), severe sepsis group (n = 29) and septic shock group (n = 14) according to the severity of disease. According to whether MODS occurred or not, they were divided into sepsis without MODS (n = 60) and sepsis with MODS (n = 30). According to the 28-day prognosis, they were divided into survival group (n = 76) and death group (n = 14). The clinical data of each group was compared, and the value of LDH in predicting the severity and prognosis of sepsis in children was analyzed.

Result The LDH levels in sepsis group, severe sepsis group and septic shock group, MODS group and non-MODS group, death group and survival group were significantly different (P ＜ 0.05). Pearson correlation analysis showed that the serum LDH level was positively correlated with hospital stay, WBC, PCT and creatinine levels (r = 0.281, 0.322, 0.319, 0.255, P ＜ 0.05 ~ P ＜ 0.01). Logistic regression analysis showed that the serum LDH level was an independent risk factor for MODS and death in children with sepsis (OR = 2.135, 2.628, P ＜ 0.01). Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves showed that the area under the curve of LDH predicting severe sepsis, septic shock, MODS and death was 0.683, 0.852, 0.850 and 0.708, respectively.

Conclusions Serum LDH can be used as a valuable biomarker to predict the severity and prognosis of sepsis in children.