Value of C-reactive protein and procalcitonin in diagnosis of bloodstream infection

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the clinical significance of C-reactive protein(CRP)and procalcitonin(PCT)in diagnosis of bacterial bloodstream infections so as to provide basis for early diagnosis of blood stream infections.METHODS Totally 123 cases of patients with positive blood culture and 112 cases of patients with negative blood culture were enrolled in the study,then the blood specimens were collected to determine the CRP and PCT on the survey day,and the data were compared between the two groups;the patients with positive blood culture were divided into the gram-positive bacteria group and the gram-negative bacteria group,the statistical analysis of the data was performed with the use of SPS 16.0 software,and the CRP and PCT were compared between the positive blood culture group and the negative blood culture group as well as within the positive blood culture group.RESULTS The positive rate of CRP of the 112 patients with negative blood culture was 97.3%,the 123 patients with positive blood culture 100.0%;the positive rates of PCT were 31.3% and 100.0%,respectively.The CRP determination value of the positive blood culture group was(18.9-217)mg/L,significantly higher than(3.5-138.8)mg/L of the negative blood culture group,the difference was significant(P 0.01);the PCT determination value of the positive group was(0.21-100)ng/ml,significantly higher than(0.02-1.76)ng/ml)of the negative blood culture group(P0.01);the difference in the CRP determination value between the grampositive bacteria and the gram-negative bacteria was not significant,but with statistical significance in the PCT determination value(P0.05).CONCLUSIONPCT and CRP can be served as the monitoring indicators for the bacterial blood stream infections;the patients with gram-negative bacteria blood stream infections have higher PCT value than the patients with gram-positive bacteria blood stream infections.