OBJECTIVE To explore the characteristics of postoperative nosocomial infection in the primary liver cancer patients undergoing transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) and analyze the association with serum micro ribonucleic acid (miR).

METHODS Totally 648 patients with primary liver cancer who received TACE in Hebei North University Affiliated First Hospital from Jan 2019 to Apr 2023 were enrolled in the study and were divided into the infection group with 51 cases and the no infection group with 597 cases according to the status of nosocomial infection. The clinical characteristics and levels of serum miR-200a, miR-15a and miR-221 were observed and compared between the two groups of patients. The values of serum miR-200a, miR-15a and miR-221 in prediction of postoperative nosocomial infection in the primary liver cancer patients undergoing TACE were analyzed by means of receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves.

RESULTS The proportion of patients complicated with diabetes mellitus, spleen embolism and invasive procedures of the infection group was significantly higher than that of the no infection group(P < 0.05). The levels of miR-200a and miR-15a of the infection group were significantly lower than those of the no infection group(P < 0.05), while the serum miR-221 level of the infection group was significantly higher than that of the no infection group(P < 0.05). The result of ROC curve analysis showed that the area under curve (AUC) of the joint detection of serum miR-200a, miR-15a and miR-221 was 0.917 in prediction of postoperative nosocomial infection in the primary liver cancer, higher than that of the single detection(P < 0.05).

CONCLUSION The primary liver cancer patients with nosocomial infection show low expressions of serum miR-200a and miR-15a after TACE but show high expression of serum miR-221. The postoperative nosocomial infection in the primary liver cancer patients undergoing TACE is associated with the diabetes mellitus, spleen embolism and invasive operation.