Procalcitonin as a diagnostic biomarker of sepsis: A tertiary care centre experience.

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Procalcitonin as a diagnostic biomarker of sepsis: A tertiary care centre experience.

J Infect Public Health. 2019 May - Jun;12(3):323-329

Authors: Gupta S, Jaswani P, Sharma RK, Agrawal S, Prasad N, Sahu C, Gupta A, Prasad KN

Abstract
INTRODUCTION: Despite the advancement in diagnostic modalities of sepsis, it is still a leading cause of morbidity and mortality. Differentiation between sepsis and non-infectious disease states remains a diagnostic challenge. Procalcitonin (PCT) is useful for the diagnosis of sepsis but it varies in cut-off ranges at different clinical settings. The aim of this study was to correlate serum PCT levels with cultures and to evaluate the best cut-off values with high sensitivity and specificity for PCT.
METHODOLOGY: This prospective study included 305 patients from different medical wards; the patients were classified into group I: controls (n=46), group II: culture-negative sepsis (n=76) and group III: culture-positive sepsis (n=196). Mean p value <0.05 was considered significant.
RESULTS: PCT levels were significantly higher in group II and group III as compared with group I. In group II, the best cut-off point for PCT was 1.3ng/ml with 87.30% sensitivity and 78.26% specificity (area under curve 0.86). In group III, the best cut-off value of 2.20ng/ml with 98.47% sensitivity and 89.13% specificity was found (AUC 0.96).
CONCLUSION: Procalcitonin can accurately differentiate culture-negative and culture-positive sepsis from non-infectious diseases, thus making it a promising biomarker in diagnosis of bacterial sepsis.

PMID: 30497960 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

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