BMC Infectious Diseases (Dec 2009)

Diagnostic and prognostic value of procalcitonin among febrile critically ill patients with prolonged ICU stay

  • Giamarellos-Bourboulis Evangelos,
  • Orfanos Stylianos,
  • Dimopoulou Ioanna,
  • Tsaknis George,
  • Kopterides Petros,
  • Tsantes Argirios,
  • Gourgoulis George,
  • Kavatha Dimitra,
  • Plachouras Diamantis,
  • Tsangaris Iraklis,
  • Giamarellou Helen,
  • Armaganidis Apostolos

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2334-9-213
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 9, no. 1
p. 213

Abstract

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Abstract Background Procalcitonin (PCT) has been proposed as a diagnostic and prognostic sepsis marker, but has never been validated in febrile patients with prolonged ICU stay. Methods Patients were included in the study provided they were hospitalised in the ICU for > 10 days, were free of infection and presented a new episode of SIRS, with fever >38°C being obligatory. Fifty patients fulfilled the above criteria. PCT was measured daily during the ICU stay. The primary outcome was proven infection. Results Twenty-seven out of 50 patients were diagnosed with infection. Median PCT on the day of fever was 1.18 and 0.17 ng/ml for patients with and without proven infections (p Conclusion The reported data support that serial serum PCT may be a valuable diagnostic and prognostic marker in febrile chronic critically ill patients.