Clinical application of combined detection of C-reactive protein,prealbumin, and procalcitonin in diagnosis of infectious diseases in children

OBJECTIVE To explore the clinical value of C-reactive protein(CRP),prealbumin(PA),or procalcitonin(PCT)in the diagnosis of infectious diseases in children and the clinical significance of the combined detection of the three indicators.METHODS Totally 132children with infectious diseases,who were hospitalized from Oct 2011 to Dec 2012,were enrolled in the study and were divided into the bacterial infection group with 74cases and the viral infection group with 58cases,while 40healthy children were set as controls,then turbidimetric immunoassay,colorimetry,and immune chemiluminescence were respectively employed to determine the levels of the serum CRP,PA,and PCT.RESULTS As compared with the bacterial infection group,the viral infection group,and the control group,the levels of CRP and PCT were significantly elevated,while the level of PA was significantly reduced(P0.05).The positive rates of the CRP,PA,and PCT of the bacterial infection group were respectively 9.73%,97.30%,and 91.89%,significantly higher than those of the viral infection group and the control group(P0.05).CONCLUSIONThe serum levels of CRP,PA and PCT can serve as the routine indicators for the diagnosis and discrimination of infectious diseases in the children and have great significance to the guidance of reasonable use of antibiotics,evaluation of illness condition,and judgment of therapeutic effect;the combined detection of the three indicators can improve the sensitivity of diagnosis of infectious diseases in the children and reduce the misdiagnosis,which provides evidence for the early and correct diagnosis of infectious diseases in the children.