ObjectiveTo explore the value of procalcitonin-to-albumin (PAR) in patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS).MethodsA retrospective study was carried on patients diagnosed with ARDS from December 2016 to March 2018. The receiver-operating characteristics (ROC) curve was used to identify the cutoff value of PAR. The association of PAR and 28-day mortality was evaluated using univariate and multivariable Cox regression.ResultsIn the final analysis, there were a total of 255 patients included. Of whom 164 (64.3%) was male, 91 (35.7%) was female and the mean age was 52.1±14.5 years old. The 28-day mortality of all the patients was 32.9% (n=84). ROC curve revealed that the cutoff value of PAR was 0.039 (specificity: 0.714, sensitivity: 0.702) and area under the curve was 0.793 (95%CI: 0.735 - 0.850, P<0.001). The following variables were considered for multivariable adjustment: age, body mass index, pneumonia, aspiration, sepsis, surgery, PaO2/FiO2, red blood cell counts and PAR (P<0.01 in univariate analysis). After multivariable analysis, only age (HR: 1.033, 95%CI: 1.009 - 1.059, P=0.008), PaO2/FiO2 (HR: 0.992, 95%CI: 0.985 - 1.000, P=0.044) and PAR (HR: 4.899, 95%CI: 2.148 - 11.174, P<0.001) remained independently associated with 28-day mortality (P<0.05).ConclusionHigh PAR predicts a poor outcome in ARDS patients, therefore it appears to be a prognostic biomarker of outcomes in patients with ARDS.
ObjectiveTo investigate the role of dynamic monitoring procalcitonin (PCT) in the comprehensive evaluation during the diagnosis and treatment of community acquired pneumonia (CAP). MethodsFour hundred and sixty-eight patients with CAP were randomly assigned to a PCT-guided group (the research group) and a standard guideline group (the control group). The clinical symptoms,CURB-65 grade,blood leucocyte count and classification,and C-reactive protein (CRP)were compared between two groups. The PCT-guided application time of antibiotics,the hospitalization time,chest CT examination rate,the cure or the improvement rate were also estimated and commpared. ResultsThe hospitalization time [(9.6±1.7)days vs. (10.9±1.6)days],hospitalization cost [(6 957.11±1 009.46) yuan vs. (8 011.35±1 049.77) yuan],chest CT examination rate (56.96% vs. 89.40%),the application time of antibiotics [(16.5±2.3)days vs. (20.0±1.2)days],and the rate of required antibiotics upgrade (6.96% vs. 11.06%) in the research group were all significantly lower than the control group (P<0.05). There was no significant difference between two groups in the ratio of the adverse reaction of antibiotics (14.78% vs. 15.20%),the rate of transfer into ICU (2.61% vs. 3.69%) or the mortality (1.74% vs. 2.30%)(P>0.05). ConclusionOn the basis of CAP guidelines,the dynamic monitoring of PCT may shorten the time of antibiotic use and the hospitalization,reduce the cost of hospitalization and the rate of chest CT scan in patients with CAP.
ObjectiveTo assess the diagnostic value of procalcitonin (PCT) and/or (1,3)-β-D-glucan test (serum BG assay) for pulmonary infection. MethodsWe collected 1 027 cases randomly from January 24th, 2013 to January 25th, 2014. First, we accumulated isolates from these cases in sputum culture. Second, we compared PCT and sputum culture, serum BG assay and sputum culture, CT and serum BG assay. Then we accumulated these PCT and studied its distribution when PCT>0.5 ng/mL and when their sputum culture was positive. We also accumulated these serum BG assay results and studied its distribution when their sputum culture was positive for aspergillus or suggested aspergillus infection by CT. Finally, we estimated the significance of the combined use of PCT and serum BG assay for diagnosis of pulmonary infection. ResultsIn these cases, pathogens were mainly multiple drug-resistant organisms and tuberculosis, or fungi. We found that PCT value presented a skew distribution in disease with a median of 2.06 ng/mL. Single PCT or combination of PCT and sputum culture had similar distribution. With sputum culture as the reference, PCT sensitivity was 41.2% and specificity was 66.4%. In the cases of sputum culture aspergillus and CT suggestion of aspergillus infection, serum BG assay value distribution was similar, and the median and average were both lower than cut-off. With sputum culture as the reference, serum BG assay sensitivity was 13.2% and specificity was 84.1%. In the 12 cases with positive sputum culture and serum BG assay, serum BG assay median was 112.91 pg/mL. With CT as the reference, serum BG assay sensitivity was 21.4% and specificity was 75.0%. In the 17 cases with the same sputum and blood culture result with the PCT median of 7.51 pg/mL, there were three cases whose PCT value was under the cutoff and three cases whose serum BG assay value was above the cutoff. In evaluation of the combination of PCT and serum BG assay, the analysis had yielded that we could neither diagnose pulmonary infection with both being positive, nor exclude the disease with both being negative. ConclusionWith regard to PCT and serum BG assay, we should be prudent and wise and use it after reasonable evaluation and entire analysis.
Objective To explore the clinical significances of serum procalcitonin ( PCT) and Creactive protein( CRP) in diagnosis and severity assessment of sepsis. Methods A total of 72 patients with different severities of sepsis admitted to Wenzhou Second People’s Hospital from June 2005 to September 2007, including 22 cases of sepsis, 26 cases of severe sepsis, and 24 cases of sepsis shock. Meanwhile, twenty non-sepsis patients were enrolled as control group. The differences of serum PCT and CRP levels, acute physiology and chronic health evaluation Ⅱ ( APACHEⅡ) scores and sepsis related organ failure assessment ( SOFA) scores were compared in controls and the septic patients with different severities and different prognosis. Results The PCT levels of patients with sepsis, severe sepsis and sepsis shock were significantly higher than that in the non-sepsis group [ ( 1. 51 ±1. 57) , ( 5. 62 ±3. 78) and ( 13. 56 ±8. 16) vs ( 0. 12 ± 0. 33) μg/L, P lt;0. 05 or P lt; 0. 01, respectively] . The CRP level, APACHEⅡ and SOFA were also increased in septic patients compared to control and progressively elavated by the severities of sepsis patients ( P lt; 0. 05 or P lt; 0. 01) , however, CRP levels were not significant different ( P gt; 0. 05) . The PCT levels, APACHEⅡ and SOFA of the patients with good prognosis were lower than those with poor prognosis( all P lt; 0. 01) , but the CRP levels was not significant different( P gt;0. 05) . Conclusion The serumlevel of PCT is superior to serumlevel of CRP in severity classification and prognosis assessment.
Objective To evaluate systematically the effectiveness and safety of procalcitonin ( PCT) -guided therapy in comparison with standard therapy in patients with suspected or confirmed severe bacterial infections in intensive care unit ( ICU) . Methods Five randomized controlled trials ( 927 patients) were included for statistical analysis by the cochrane collaboration′s RevMan5. 0 software. Results PCT-guided therapy was associated with a significant reduction in duration of antibiotic therapy [ MD =- 2. 01, 95% CI ( - 2. 37, - 1. 64) , P lt;0. 00001] , but the mortality [ OR =1. 11, 95% CI ( 0. 83, 1. 49) ,P =0. 47] and length of ICU stay[ MD = 0. 49, 95% CI( - 1. 44, 2. 42) , P = 0. 62] were not significantly different. Conclusions An algorithmbased on serial PCT measurements would allow a more judicious use of antibiotics than currently traditional treatment of patients with severe infections in ICU. It can reduce the use of antibiotics and appears to be safe.
ObjectiveTo compare and evaluate the diagnostic value of procalcitonin(PCT) and soluble triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells-1(sTREM-1) for ventilator-associated pneumonia(VAP). MethodsThe related studies were systematically searched in PubMed, OvidSP (EMBASE), Cochrane Library, clinicaltrials.gov, EBSCO, CBM, CNKI and Wanfang database and the methodological quality of all eligible studies were assessed using the Quality Assessment for Studies of Diagnostic Accuracy (QUADAS) tool. The sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio, negative likelihood ratio, diagnostic odds ratio (DOR), and areas under the summary receiver operating characteristic (sROC) curve of PCT and sTREM-1 were pooled by Meta-disc software, respectively. Area under the sROC curve (AUC) was compared using Z-test. In addition, Bayes's theorem was used to calculate the probability of VAP, conditioned by the likelihood ratio as a function of the pretest probability. ResultsIn total, 31 studies were included (20 studies on PCT and 11 studies on sTREM-1). The combined sensitivity, specificity, DOR and AUC of diagnosing VAP by PCT was 0.78, 0.74, 15.21, and 0.868, respectively. And the combined sensitivity, specificity, DOR and AUC of diagnosing VAP by sTREM-1 was 0.88, 0.80, 30.28, and 0.919, respectively. There was no statistical difference between two areas under the sROC curve (P=0.25). ConclusionsTREM-1 is superior to PCT in diagnosing VAP, however, neither can confirm nor exclude VAP alone.
ObjectiveTo compare the clinical characteristics of inpatients with different influenza subtypes, so as to identify the subtypes at an early stage.MethodsA retrospective case study was conducted, using influenza surveillance data from January 1st, 2016 to December 31st, 2018 at a tertiary surveillance outpost hospital in Chengdu. Patients diagnosed with different subtypes of influenza by nucleic acid testing or virus isolation and culture were investigated, and their clinical characteristics, laboratory test results, and prognosis were analyzed and compared among the four subtypes including H1N1, H3N2, Victoria (BV), and Yamagata (BY).ResultsThere were 127 inpatients with laboratory-confirmed influenza. Among the confirmed influenza patients, 85.8% (109/127) had low or normal white blood cell counts, and 78.8% (89/113) had abnormally high procalcitonin levels. Among the patients with different subtypes, statistical differences existed in age (P<0.001), low or normal white blood cell count (P=0.041), positive bacteria/fungus/mycoplasma/chlamydia culture (P=0.001), kidney damage (P=0.013), outcome at discharge (P<0.001), and hospitalization expenses (P=0.016). However, there was no statistical difference in gender, clinical symptoms, liver damage, cardiac damage, or length of hospital stay (P>0.05).ConclusionThe infection of influenza can lead to severe clinical complications or even death. The outcomes of patients with influenza A may be more severe. An elevated procalcitonin level can be detected in quite a few patients with influenza.
Objective To investigate the clinical value of peripheral serum cell-free DNA/neutrophil extracellular traps (cf-DNA/NETs) level in diagnosis and severity assessment of sepsis patients. Methods Forty patients with sepsis and 40 patients with non-infectious systemic inflammatory response syndrome (nf-SIRS) were enrolled in this study. The cf-DNA/NETs level in serum of all subjects were measured. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to evaluate the diagnostic ability of the cf-DNA/NETs, white blood cell count (WBC), procalcitonin (PCT) and interleukin-6 (IL-6). The sepsis patients were stratified into a survival group and a death group according to the prognosis. Sequential organ failure (SOFA) score were recorded in the sepsis patients, and the correlations between SOFA and cf-DNA/NETs, PCT, WBC, IL-6 were analyzed. Results Compared with the nf-SIRS group, cf-DNA/NETs and PCT levels were significantly higher in the sepsis group (both P<0.05). WBC and IL-6 showed no significant differences between the two groups (bothP>0.05). The area under the ROC curve (AUC) of cf-DNA/NETs was 0.884 for diagnosis of sepsis, and it was higher than the AUC of PCT (0.803). The cf-DNA/NETs showed better sensitivity (81.2% and 79.2%) and specificity (81.0% and 82.4%) than PCT. cf-DNA/NETs and PCT were significantly higher in the death group than those in the survival group. Bivariate collection analysis revealed positive correlations between SOFA score and the two biomarkers of cf-DNA/NETs and PCT (r1=0.573, r2=0.518; both P<0.01). Conclusions cf-DNA/NETs and PCT have certain value in early diagnosis of sepsis, and cf-DNA/NETs shows better diagnostic value in distinguishing sepsis from nf-SIRS than PCT. cf-DNA/NETs can be used as a routine monitoring index to help assess disease severity in sepsis.
Objective To evaluate the predicting effect of quick Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (qSOFA) on septic shock, and investigate the probability of improving the predicting effect. Methods Patients with sepsis diagnosed in Emergency Department from July 2015 to June 2016 were enrolled. They were divided into shock group and non-shock group based on whether or not they had septic shock during 72 hours after admission. The multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to find out the independent risk factors affecting the incidence of septic shock. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to analyze those risk factors. Modified Early Warning Score (MEWS), Mortality in Emergency Department Sepsis Score (MEDS), Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA), Acute Physiology and Chronic HealthEvaluation (APACHE)Ⅱ and qSOFA were also compared with ROC curve analysis. The possibility of improvement of qSOFA predicting effect was discussed. Results A total of 821 patients were enrolled, with 108 in septic shock group and 713 in non-septic shock. The result of multivariate logistic regression analysis indicated that respiratory rate, systolic blood pressure, pH value, oxygenation index, lactate, albumin, Glasgow Coma Score and procalcitonin were the independent risk factors (P<0.05). The result of ROC analysis showed that the area under curve (AUC) of pH value, lactate and procalcitonin was 0.695, 0.678 and 0.694, respectively. Lactate had the highest value of specificity (0.868), positive predictive value (0.356) and positive likelihood ratio (3.644), while the sensitivity (0.889) and negative predictive value (0.961) of procalcitonin were the highest. MEWS, MEDS, SOFA, APACHEⅡ and qSOFA were compared with ROC. SOFA had the best predicting effect with the statistical results of AUC (0.833), sensitivity (0.835), specificity (0.435), positive predictive value (0.971), negative predictive value (0.971), and positive likelihood ratio (5.048); and MEWS had the highest negative likelihood ratio (0.581). qSOFA did not show a best predicting value. Conclusion qSOFA is not the best choice to predict the possibility of septic shock, but its predicting value might be improved when combined with pH value, lactate and procalcitonin.
ObjectiveTo systematically review the efficacy of antibiotic treatment in sepsis patients under the guidance of procalcitonin. MethodsDatabases including PubMed, The Cochrane Library (Issue 9, 2016), EMbase, Web of Science, CBM, WanFang Data, VIP and CNKI were electronically searched from inception to September 2016 to collect randomized controlled trials (RCTs) about antibiotic treatment in sepsis under the guidance of procalcitonin. Two reviewers independently screened literature, extracted data and assessed the risk bias of included studies, and then meta-analysis was performed by RevMan 5.3 software. ResultsA total of 15 RCTs involving 3 328 sepsis patients were included. Among them, 1 649 were in the procalcitionin group and 1 679 patients in the control group. The results of meta-analysis showed that:the PCT group could significantly reduce the using time of antibiotics (MD=-2.37, 95%CI -2.96 to -1.78, P<0.000 01), the ICU length of stay (MD=-0.26, 95%CI -0.46 to -0.07, P=0.007), the hospital length of stay (MD=-2.78, 95%CI -4.53 to -1.04, P=0.002), as well as the 28-day mortality (MD=0.78, 95%CI 0.66 to 0.93, P=0.005). There were no significant differences between the two groups in ICU mortality, in-hospital mortality and clinical cure rate. ConclusionUsing the procalcitontin to guide the antibiotic treatment in sepsis can reduce the patients' use of antibiotics, ICU length of stay, in-hospital length of stay and 28-day mortality, but can not reduce the patients' ICU mortality, in-hospital mortality and clinical cure rate. Due to the limited quality and quantity of included studies, the current conclusions are needed more studies to validate.