Objective To investigate the expression of tissue signal transducer and activator of transcription 3(STAT3)and serum STAT3 mRNA,IL-12p40 and IL-13R α 2 levels in children with congenital intestinal atresia and their correlation with prognosis.Methods From January 2020 to January 2023,100 cases of intestinal atresia lesion tissues,normal intestinal tissues and preoperative serum samples were collected from children with congenital intestinal atresia who underwent treatment in Hebei Children's Hospital.According to the Grosfeld typing criteria,these children were categorized into 39 cases of type Ⅰ,22 cases of type Ⅱ,30 cases of type Ⅲ and 9 cases of type Ⅳ.Based on the recovery situation at 6 months after surgery,these children were separated into a good prognosis group(n=78)and a poor prognosis group(n=22).Serum samples from 93 cases of healthy children undergoing medical examinations during the same period were regarded as control samples.Immunohistochemistry was applied to detect the positive expression and localization of STAT3 in tissues.Western blot was applied to detect the expression of STAT3 protein in tissues,and quantitative polymerase chain reaction(qPCR)was applied to detect the expression level of STAT3 mRNA in serum.Pearson correlation was applied to analyze the correlation between serum STAT3 and inflammatory factor levels in children with congenital intestinal atresia.Logistic regression was used to analyze the factors affecting the prognosis of children with congenital intestinal atresia.Receiver operating characteristic(ROC)curve was applied to analyze the predictive efficacy of serum STAT3 level on the prognosis of children with congenital intestinal atresia.Results Immunohistochemical results showed that STAT3 positive expression was mainly localized in the cytoplasm and nucleus.The positive expression rate in congenital intestinal atresia tissue(86％)was higher than that in normal intestinal tissue(18％),and the difference was significant(x2=92.628,P＜0.05).Western blot results showed that the relative expression level of STAT3 in congenital intestinal atresia tissue(1.59±0.21)was higher than that in normal intestinal tissue(0.81±0.12),and the difference was significant(t=30.567,P＜0.05).The results of qPCR showed that serum STAT3(2.13±0.56),IL-12p40(0.89±0.13 ng/ml),and IL-13R α 2 levels(6.42±1.86ng/ml)in the congenital intestinal atresia group were higher than those in the control groups(1.06±0.11,0.37±0.08ng/ml,1.35±0.41ng/ml),and the differences were significant(t=18.101,33.170,25.708,all P＜0.05).The levels of STAT3 and IL-12p40,IL-13R α 2 were gradually increased with the increase of the children's subtypes,and the differences were significant(F=52.666,160.300,25.82,all P＜0.05).Pearson correlation analysis showed a positive correlation between serum STAT3,IL-12p40,and IL-13R α 2 levels in children with congenital intestinal atresia(r=0.496,0.564,all P＜0.001).The expression level of serum STAT3 in poor prognosis group(3.01±0.75)was higher than that in good prognosis group(1.88±0.51),and the differences was statistically significant(t=8.212,P＜0.05).Logistic regression showed that STAT3,IL-12p40,IL-13R α 2,and low birth quality were all independent risk factors for poor prognosis in children with congenital intestinal atresia(all P＜0.05).The ROC curve showed that the area under the curve(AUC)for evaluating the prognosis of children with congenital intestinal atresia by serum STAT3 expression was 0.916,with a sensitivity of 81.82％and a specificity of 88.46％,respectively.When the serum STAT3 mRNA level was higher than 2.47,children with congenital intestinal atresia had a higher probability of poor prognosis.Conclusion The expression of STAT3 is increased in the tissues and serum of children with congenital intestinal atresia.Serum STAT3 may have a predictive value for the prognosis of affected children.