Tag Archives: procalcitonin

The Utility of Serial Lipid Measurements as a Potential Predictor of Sepsis Outcome: A Prospective Observational Study in a Tertiary Care Hospital

Afrah Abdul Malick1, Jeyakumar Manavalan2, Viveka Murugiah1, Manikandan Bose1, Hariharan Alexander1, Suganthy Kanakasekaran1

1 Velammal Medical College Hospitals and Research Institute, Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India
2 Sri Manakula Vinayagar medical college and Hospital, Puducherry, India

DOI: 10.2478/jccm-2024-0015

Background and aim: Sepsis is the major cause of morbidity and mortality for patients admitted to an intensive care unit worldwide. Currently, Procalcitonin (PCT) is a widely used prognostic marker for sepsis. The high cost of estimating Procalcitonin limits its utility in all health facilities. Lipid Profile, being a frequently done routine investigation, is studied in sepsis patients to predict the prognosis of sepsis. This study was aimed to assess the association between lipid profile parameters, procalcitonin and clinical outcomes in patients with sepsis.
Materials and methods: It is a prospective observational study conducted in a tertiary care hospital in the Department of Biochemistry in collaboration with the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). We included 80 sepsis patients from medical and surgical ICUs. Among them, 59 (74%) survived and 21 (26%) expired. Serum lipid profile, procalcitonin and variables required for APACHE II score are measured at two intervals, one during admission and on day 5. All the parameters were compared between the survivors and the non-survivors.
Results: Serum PCT levels were reduced on Day 5 [3.32 (1.27-11.86)] compared to Day 0 [13.42 (5.77-33.18)] in survivors. In survivors, Total Cholesterol, LDL-C and Non-HDL-C were significantly elevated on Day 5 compared to Day 0. In non-survivors, HDL-C significantly decreased on Day 5. Between survivors and non-survivors, HDL-C significantly decreased on Day 5 (23.88 ± 10.19 vs 16.67 ± 8.27 mg/dl). A Negative correlation was observed between HDL-C & PCT.
Conclusion: Serum Lipid profile levels, namely Total cholesterol, HDL-C and LDL-C, have possible associations with the severity of sepsis. HDL-C have a negative association with the clinical scoring system in sepsis patients. Overall, the findings from our study suggest that lipid profile parameters have possible implications in predicting the outcome of patients with sepsis.

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Simplified Diagnosis of Urosepsis by Emergency Ultrasound Combined with Clinical Scores and Biomarkers

Alice Nicoleta Dragoescu1, Petru Octavian Dragoescu1, Andreea Doriana Stanculescu2, Vlad Padureanu1, Dalia Dop1, Mihai Alexandru Radu1, Mirela Marinela Florescu1, Daniela Teodora Maria1, Dan Nicolae Florescu1, George Mitroi1

1 Faculty of Medicine, University of Medicine and Pharmacy of Craiova, Craiova, Romania
2 Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Medicine and Pharmacy of Craiova, Craiova, Romania

DOI: 10.2478/jccm-2024-0006

Background: Urosepsis is a life-threatening medical condition due to a systemic infection that originates in the urinary tract. Early diagnosis and treatment of urosepsis are critical to reducing mortality rates and preventing complications. Our study was aimed at identifying a fast and reliable method for early urosepsis diagnosis and severity assessment by combining prognostic scores such as SOFA and NEWS with ultrasound examination and serum markers PCT and NLR.
Methods: We performed a single-center prospective observational study in the Craiova Clinical Emergency Hospital. It initially analysed 204 patients admitted for sepsis of various origins in our hospital between June and October 2023. Those with urological conditions that were suspected to have urosepsis have been selected for the study so that finally 76 patients were included as follows: the severe cases with persistent hypotension requiring vasopressor were enrolled in the septic shock group (15 patients – 19.7%), while the rest were included in the sepsis group (61 patients – 80.3%). Mortality rate in our study was 10.5% (8/76 deaths due to sepsis).
Results: Both prognostic scores SOFA and NEWS were significantly elevated in the septic shock group, as were the sepsis markers PCT and NLR. We identified a strong significant positive correlation between the NEWS and SOFA scores (r = 0.793) as well as PCT and NLR (r=0.417). Ultrasound emergency evaluation proved to be similar to CT scan in the diagnosis of urosepsis (RR = 0.944, p=0.264). ROC analysis showed similar diagnostic performance for both scores (AUC = 0.874 for SOFA and 0.791 for NEWS), PCT and NLR (AUC = 0.743 and 0.717).
Conclusion: Our results indicate that an accurate and fast diagnosis of urosepsis and its severity may be accomplished by combining the use of simpler tools like emergency ultrasound, the NEWS score and NLR which provide a similar diagnosis performance as other more complex evaluations.

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An Evaluation of Serum Procalcitonin and C-Reactive Protein Levels as Diagnostic and Prognostic Biomarkers of Severe Sepsis

Janos Szederjesi1*, Emoke Almasy1, Alexandra Lazar1, Adina Huțanu2, Iudita Badea1, Anca Georgescu3

1 Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care, University of Medicine and Pharmacy Tirgu Mures, Romania
2 County Clinical Emergency Hospital Tirgu Mures, Romania
3 Department of Infectious Diseases, University of Medicine and Pharmacy Tirgu Mures, Romania

DOI: 10.1515/jccm-2015-0022

Background: Recommendations have been made, following the multicenter Surviving Sepsis Campaign study, to standardize the definition of severe sepsis with reference to several parameters such as haemodynamic stability, acid-base balance, bilirubin, creatinine, International Normalized Ratio (INR), urine output and pulmonary functional value of the ratio between arterial oxigen partial pressure and inspiratory oxigen concentration. Procalcitonin (PCT) is considered to be a gold standard biomarker for the inflammatory response, and recent studies have shown that it may help to discover whether a seriously ill person is developing sepsis. C-reactive protein (CRP) is also used as a marker of inflammation in the body, as its blood levels increase if there is any inflammation in the body.
The aim of this study was to evaluate serum procalcitonin and C-reactive protein levels as diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers of severe sepsis.
Material and method: Sixty patients, diagnosed as being “septic”, were admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU). Based on laboratory results and clinical findings a diagnosis of “severe sepsis“ was made, and correlated with PCT and CRP values. The APACHE II, SAPS II and SOFA severity scores were calculated, analyzed and correlated with PCT and CRP.
Results: Fifty two patients (86.67%) presented with criteria for severe sepsis. Multivariate correlation analysis indicated a significant positive association between procalcitonin and all severity scores (APACHEII p<0.0001, SOFA p<0.0001, SAPS II p<0.0001). CRP proved to be significantly correlated only with the SAPS II score (p=0.0145). Mortality rate was high, with 48 patients (80%) dying. There was no significant correlation between the levels of the PCT and CRP biomarkers and severe sepsis (p=0.2059 for PCT, p=0.6059 for CRP).
Conclusions: The procalcitonin levels are highly correlated with the severity scores (APACHE II, SAPS II, SOFA) regularly used in ICUs and therefore can be used for determining the severity of the septic process. Quantitive procalcitonin and C-reactive protein analysis was not shown to be useful in diagnosing severe sepsis. However, PCT and CRP can be used to predict the fatal progression of the septic patient.

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