Peer-reviewed article
Copeptin and albumin in children with undernutrition
Halil Uğur Hatipoğlu, Ahsen Güler, Murat Elevli ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-sonnet-5-5This single-center study compared blood levels of copeptin and albumin in children with undernutrition and in healthy children. It included 98 children aged 1 month to 18 years: 44 with undernutrition and 54 healthy controls. Copeptin was higher and albumin was lower in the children with undernutrition. The two markers were about equally good at telling the groups apart, and using both together did slightly better within this sample.
Key points
- 98 children were included: 44 with undernutrition and 54 healthy controls.
- Serum copeptin was significantly higher and serum albumin significantly lower in children with undernutrition (both p < 0.001).
- The area under the ROC curve was 0.729 for copeptin and 0.726 for albumin, with no significant difference between them (DeLong p = 0.977).
- After adjusting for age and sex, both copeptin and albumin remained independently associated with undernutrition.
- A combined copeptin–albumin model showed higher discrimination within the study sample.
Limitations
This is a small, single-center cross-sectional study, so it cannot show that raised copeptin is a cause or a consequence of undernutrition, or how the markers perform in other settings. The abstract does not name the country, and the combined model was assessed only within the same sample.
Abstract
Background Anthropometric assessment remains the cornerstone of the identification and classification of pediatric undernutrition, whereas the role of laboratory biomarkers is less well established. Objective To evaluate serum copeptin in children with undernutrition and to compare its discriminatory performance with that of serum albumin. Methods This single-center cross-sectional case-control study included children aged 1 month to 18 years with undernutrition and healthy controls recruited from the same clinical setting. Serum copeptin concentrations were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Receiver operating characteristic analysis and multivariable logistic regression were performed. Age-stratified and sensitivity analyses were also conducted. Results A total of 98 children were included: 44 with undernutrition and 54 healthy controls. Serum copeptin concentrations were significantly higher and serum albumin concentrations were significantly lower in children with undernutrition than in healthy controls (both p < 0.001). In ROC analysis, copeptin yielded an area under the curve of 0.729 (95% CI 0.622–0.835), whereas albumin yielded an area under the curve of 0.726 (95% CI 0.618–0.833), with no significant difference between the two ROC curves (DeLong p = 0.977). In multivariable analysis adjusted for age and sex, both copeptin and albumin remained independently associated with undernutrition. A combined copeptin–albumin model showed higher discrimination within the study sample. Conclusion Serum copeptin is elevated in children with undernutrition. Although it does not outperform albumin as a standalone biomarker, it may provide complementary information when interpreted alongside albumin.