The Clinical Significance of Serum Procalcitonin in the Iinfectious Diseases in Children Patients

Objective: To investigate the clinical significance of serum procalcitonin(PCT) in the infectious diseases of children patients.Methods: 90 children with infectious diseases were enrolled and divided into the septicopyemia group,the bacteremia group,the local-infected group and the virus-infected group.20 healthy children were chosen to be the healthy control group.Serum PCT was measured by using semi-quantitative solid-phase immunoassay,meanwhile C-reactive protein(CRP) and white blood cells(WBC) count were also determined.Results: The positive rates of PCT,CRP and WBC were 90.0%,84.0% and 36.0% respectively in the bacteria-infected group,and the positive rates of PCT,CRP and WBC were 5.0%,72.5% and 7.5 % in virus-infected group,respectively.According to the above results,the positive rate of PCT was significantly higher in bacteria-infected group than that in virus-infected group.The positive rate of CRP was no difference between two groups.The positive rate of WBC was obviously lower than that of PCT.The positive rates of CRP in the septicopyemia group,the bacteremia group and the local-infected group were 100 %,92.5 % and 87.5 %,respectively,they were in proportion to infection severity.The increase degree of PCT was in proportion to the length of time that children were in hospital.Conclusion: Serum PCT test plays an important role in differentiate between bacterial infection and virus infection,and is better than CRP and WBC test.Meanwhile,serum PCT that has a positive correlation with infection severity can be used as a marker of evaluating the treatment outcomes and prognosis for bacterial infection in children.