A panel of microRNAs as a new biomarkers for the detection of deep vein thrombosis

Deep vein thrombosis is one of the common complications of orthopedic surgery, and pulmonary embolism which is one of its lethal complications can lead to mortality. Numerous efforts have been made to identify reliable and predictive biomarkers to detect the early signs of deep vein thrombosis. These studies have, however, not delivered any more informative candidates than the D-dimer that have been available. Cell-free microRNAs are present in a range of body fluids and have recently been shown to be useful biomarkers in many diseases. Therefore, the purpose of present study was to identify potential microRNA biomarkers of deep vein thrombosis that are present in serum. Serum samples were taken from 18 deep vein thrombosis patients and 20 age- and sex-matched controls. TaqMan microRNA array was used for an initial screening. Real-time PCR assay was implemented to confirm the concentrations of candidate microRNAs. We found that the serum levels of miR-582, miR-195 and miR-532 of deep vein thrombosis patients were higher than those of controls. miR-582 yielded an AUC (the areas under the ROC curve) of 0.959, and the other two microRNAs yielded an AUC of 1.000 in discriminating deep vein thrombosis from controls. These data hint that serum miR-582, miR-195 and miR-532 might have potential to be a novel noninvasive biomarkers for detection of DVT. And this is the first study suggesting that serum microNRAs might be used as biomarkers for deep vein thrombosis.