Assessment of Procalcitonin as an Early Diagnostic and Prognostic Marker of Sepsis in Cancer Patients


Abstract in English

The study is carried out to estimate the efficiency of Procalcitonin in the diagnosis of bacterial infection in cancer patients at Chemical and Radiation Therapy Center in Tishreen University Hospital in Lattakia between 3/1/2015-28\3\2016. This study has included 45 patients, 25 with infection and 20 without infection, all of them have a fever and don't take antibiotics. The all of patients has undergone a comprehensive initial assessment included history, physical examination, biochemical parameters and X-ray images. Procalcitonin was also measured during fever and compared with C-reactive protein CRP, the results indicated that there is a significant correlation between Procalcitonin and infection, where the median values Procalcitonin in patients with infection 16.9 ng/ml compared to 0.7 ng/ml in patients without infection, Procalcitonin concentration was also associated with the severity of the infection, the study showed that the Procalcitonin is more sensitive and specific of the CRP in diagnosing of sepsis in cancer patients.

References used

LE MOULLEC J.M, JULLIENNE A, CHENAIS J, LASMOLES F, GULIANA J.M, MILHAUD G, et al. The complete sequence of human preprocalcitonin. FEBS 1984, 167: 93-97
NYLEN E.S, SNIDER R.H, THOMPSON K.A., ROHATGI P, BECKER K.L. Pneumonitis-associated hyperprocalcitoninemia. Am J Med Sci 1996, 312: 12-18
LINSCHEID P, SEBOEK D, NYLEN E.S, LANGER I., SCHLATTER M, KELLER U, BECKER K.L. and MÜLLER B. In vitro and in vivo calcitonin-I gene expression in parenchymal cells: a novel product of human adipose tissue. Endocrinol 2003,144, 5578-5584

Download