Usefulness of Procalcitonin in the Diagnosis of Bacterial Infection in Immunocompetent Children

Abstract

Bacterial infections (BIs) need to be differentiated from non-BIs (NBIs) to enable prompt administration of antibiotics. Therefore, inflammatory biomarkers are needed as they can accurately identify BIs. This study evaluated the usefulness of procalcitonin (PCT) in the diagnosis of BI in immunocompetent children. We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of patients p = 0.008) and ESR (39.1 ± 32.4 vs. 54.8 ± 28.2 mm/h; p 6/L; p = 0.007), ESR (35.3 ± 30.3 vs. 51.5 ± 30.3 mm/h; p p = 0.005) were significantly different. However, none of the biomarkers were useful in differentiating BI from NBI. While WBC (area under curve (AUC) = 0.615, p = 0.003) and PCT (AUC = 0.640, p < 0.001) were useful, they fared poorly in differentiating IBI from other groups. Thus, additional studies are needed to identify more accurate biomarkers capable of differentiating BIs, especially IBIs.

Keywords

• bacterial infections
• child
• procalcitonin