title: Procalcitonin: a marker of neonatal sepsis.
abstract: This study was designed to assess the value of procalcitonin in establishing the diagnosis and evaluating the prognosis of neonatal sepsis. Thirty-four infants with neonatal sepsis were included in the study. Procalcitonin values of the cases with sepsis were (2.21 +/- 2.48 ng/ml) significantly higher than the values in the control group (0.71 +/- 0.5 ng/ml; p = 0.01). On the 7th day of therapy neonates who had achieved clinical recovery had a significant decrease of procalcitonin levels (0.55 +/- 0.27 ng/ml) compared to the initial values (p = 0.001). Initial mean procalcitonin levels of the cases resulting in death were 4.31 +/- 3.66 g/ml. This was significantly higher than the initial values of the patients who had clinical recovery (1.18 +/- 1.24 ng/ml;p = 0.02). Procalcitonin is a valuable marker for diagnosis, for evaluating prognosis and response to therapy in neonatal sepsis.
authors.affiliation: Pediatric Department, Dr Behçet Uz Children's Hospital, Izmir, Turkey.
authors.forename: Füsun
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Athhan
authors.forename: Birsen
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Akagündüz
authors.forename: Ferah
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Genel
authors.forename: Mustafa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bak
authors.forename: Demet
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Can
mesh_terms: D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood; D002116:Calcitonin / Q000097:blood*; D015740:Calcitonin Gene-Related Peptide; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D011379:Prognosis; D011498:Protein Precursors / Q000097:blood*; D011863:Radioimmunoassay; D018805:Sepsis / Q000097:blood* / Q000175:diagnosis; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; C000606589:CALCA protein, human; D011498:Protein Precursors; D002116:Calcitonin; D015740:Calcitonin Gene-Related Peptide