Diagnostic value of serum procalcitonin as an early indicator of sepsis

Objective To observe the serum procalcitonin(PCT) level with PCT-Q quick test(BRAHMS DIAGNOSTICA GmbH, Berlin)between adult patients with systemic inflammatory response syndrome(SIRS) and sepsis and estimate its clinical value. Meanwhile, to compare PCT with conventional inflammatory marks, such as white blood cell(WBC) count, body temperature(BT), C-reactive protein (CRP). Methods Thirty-eight patients who were enrolled in the study, suffered from sepsis or SIRS within 24 hours and divided into two groups, sepsis group(n=18) and SIRS group(n=20). Serum concentration of PCT and CRP were determined, and WBC count, percentage of neutrophils and maximal BT were also recorded within 24 hs on admission. Results PCT was higher in sepsis group. There was a significant difference between two groups(P=0.001). The conventional inflammatory marks revealed that there was no significant difference between two groups(P0.05). PCT values were compared with the conventional inflammatory marks. Predictive accuracy for sepsis express as are under the receiver operating characteristic(ROC)curve was 0.80 for PCT, 0.64 for CRP, 0.64 for BT, 0.61 for percentage of neutrophils and 0.43 for WBC count. Conclusion PCT could probably be used as a predictive marker in sepsis in emergency departments.