Clinical Significance of Determination of Procalcitonin(PCT) in Infectious Diseases

Objective To evaluate the diagnostic value of serum procalcitonin(PCT) for bacterial infection.Method The levels of serum PCT in patients with bacterial infection and virus infection were retrospectively analyzed.Results The level of serum PCT in patients with virus infection and mild or local bacterial infection was below 0.5ng/ml,it was above 0.5ng/ml in patients with medium bacterial infection,above 2.0ng/ml in patients with severe bacterial infection,and above 10.0ng/ml in patients with severe sepsis or infectious shock.There were statistical differences in the level of serum PCT between the groups of virus infection and mild or local bacterial infection and the group of medium or above bacterial infection( P 0.01).The sensitivity of level of serum PCT diagnosing bacterial infection was 93.33% and its specificity was 95.00%.Conclusion PCT could be used as an effective diagnostic marker for bacterial infection.