Analysis of influencing factors for serum procalcitonin level in septic patients

Abstract

Objective To explore the influencing factors of serum procalcitonin (PCT) levels in patients with sepsis. Methods Medical records of 526 adult sepsis patients (280 males and 246 females) admitted in the geriatrics, emergency department and ICU of our hospital from January 2014 to December 2019, aged 18 to 91 (53 ±19) years old, were cdlected including clinical relevant data before treatment (within 24 h after admission) for analysis. According to different PCT levels, they were divided into: PCT normal group (n=153, < 0.5 ng/mL) and PCT elevated group (n=373, ≥0.5 ng/mL), and logistic regression was used to analyze the influencing factors of PCT level. In combination with the underlying diseases of these patients, one-way analysis of variance, performed was to observe the differences in PCT levels in different combined underlying disease groups. Results The results of multivariate regression analysis showed that patients with sepsis were associated with underlying diseases (OR=1.670, P=0.033), white blood cell count (WBC) was abnormal (OR=1.826, P=0.006), and respiratory rate was increased (OR=2.149, P=0.002), decreased albumin (OR=2.197, P=0.000), increased C-reactive protein (CRP) (OR=2.365, P=0.003), septic shock (OR=10.748, P=0.005) and other factors may be risk factors for elevated PCT levels; one-way analysis of variance showed that PCT levels in the mixed disease group were higher than those in the hypertension, coronary heart disease, diabetes and urinary calculi group (P < 0.05), and the PCT in the diabetes group was higher than the hypertension and coronary heart disease groups (P < 0.05), PCT in the urinary calculi group was higher than that in the hypertension and coronary heart disease groups (P < 0.05). Conclusion Comorbidities, low albumin, and septic shock may be the risk factors for elevated serum PCT levels in patients with sepsis. The types and number of comorbidities will also affect the elevated levels of serum PCT.

Keywords

• sepsis
• procalcitonin
• hypertension
• diabetes mellitus
• coronary disease