Procalcitonin as an early marker of postoperative infectious complications.
BACKGROUND
Procalcitonin (PCT) is a new marker for severe infection that is supposed to have a useful role in the early detection of bacterial infection in the perioperative period.


OBJECTIVE
to test the hypothesis that PCT is useful as an early marker of postoperative infectious complications.


METHODS
Thirty-three patients were submitted to major abdominal interventions that comprehend an intestinal resection (mean age: 49.9+/-19.3 years; 19 males, 14 females). PCT was tested at 4 times: T1=preoperative; T2=6 hours after starting interventions; T3=24 hours after; T4=48 hours after.


METHODS
"t"-Student test and Pearson correlation.


RESULTS
In the postoperative course 11 patients had infectious complications that were: 3 wound infections, 2 positive haemocolture, 1 pneumonia, 3 deep abdominal infections, 2 anastomotic dehiscences. In these patients only the 24 hours PCT assay at T3 was higher than in the other patients that had not complications (microgram/ml 4.74+/-3.8 vs 1.22+/-0.8; p<0.0001). The cut off value of 1 ng/ml has a sensibility of 70% and a specificity of 81%.


CONCLUSIONS
PCT detection appear to be an important aid for early diagnosis of postoperative infectious complications when it is used with the other indexes.
Di Filippo
A
A
Institute of Anesthesia and Intensive Care, University of Florence, Florence, Italy.
Lombardi
A
A
Ognibene
A
A
Messeri
G
G
Tonelli
F
F
D001424:Bacterial Infections / Q000097:blood*; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood; D002116:Calcitonin / Q000097:blood*; D015740:Calcitonin Gene-Related Peptide; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000097:blood*; D011498:Protein Precursors / Q000097:blood*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013997:Time Factors
D015415:Biomarkers; C000606589:CALCA protein, human; D011498:Protein Precursors; D002116:Calcitonin; D015740:Calcitonin Gene-Related Peptide