Objective  To observe the expression of pancreatic stone protein (PSP) in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) and exhaled breath condensate (EBC) of patients with ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) and its detection value.

  Methods  The PSP expression levels in BALF and EBC of 40 VAP patients were respectively detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) on the day of VAP suspected diagnosis and the day of VAP diagnosis. During the same period, 40 patients with mechanical ventilation without VAP were selected as the control group. The PSP expression levels in BALF and EBC between the two groups at different time points were compared, and the diagnostic value of PSP level in BALF and EBC for VAP diagnosis was analyzed by ROC curve method.

  Results  The PSP expression levels in BALF and EBC on the day of VAP suspected diagnosis and the day of VAP diagnosis of the VAP group were significantly higher than that of the non-VAP group (P < 0.05). The PSP expression levels in BALF and EBC of both groups on the day of VAP diagnosis were significantly higher than those of the day of VAP suspected diagnosis (P < 0.05). The PSP expression levels in BALF of two groups were significantly higher than that in EBC (P < 0.05). The area under the curve of PSP in BALF on the day of VAP diagnosis was 0.91, which was higher than that in EBC on the same day, and that in EBC and BALF on the day of VAP suspected diagnosis. Although the sensitivity was lower than that in EBC(87.50% vs. 92.50%), and the specificity was higher than that in EBC (80.00% vs. 67.50%).

  Conclusion  The detection of PSP levels in BALF and EBC for the early diagnosis of VAP has a higher clinical value, especially the detection of PSP levels in BALF.