title: Pentraxin 3 in the assessment of ventilator-associated pneumonia: an early marker of severity.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The aim was to assess the diagnostic and prognostic value of measuring pentraxin 3 (PTX3) together with C-reactive protein (CRP) in patients with ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP).
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  The PTX3 values increase rapidly during multiple inflammatory conditions, but little is known about its characteristics in VAP.
  
  
  METHODS
  Measurement of PTX3 and CRP levels in plasma from 136 consecutive patients receiving mechanical ventilation > 48 h in a prospective single center study.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A PTX3 threshold of >16.43 ng/ml provided a specificity of 74.0% and a sensitivity of 68.6% for the diagnosis of VAP. PTX3 correlated with severity of sepsis and peaked earlier than CRP in patients with confirmed VAP. Multivariate Cox regression analysis showed PTX3 was the independent predictor for mortality of VAP.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  PTX3 was not superior to CRP as a biomarker to diagnose VAP, but it was an early indicator of inflammation and had better prognostic value to predict mortality than CRP.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anaesthesia, Critical Care and Pain Medicine, Zhongshan Hospital of Fudan University, 180 Fenglin Road, Shanghai, 200032, PR China.
authors.forename: Qionghua
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Fengming
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Fu
authors.forename: Lihua
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Shen
authors.forename: Biao
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Zhu
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D015415:Biomarkers; D002097:C-Reactive Protein / Q000032:analysis / Q000378:metabolism; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007249:Inflammation / Q000378:metabolism; D008168:Lung / Q000378:metabolism; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D053717:Pneumonia, Ventilator-Associated / Q000097:blood / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000401:mortality / Q000503:physiopathology; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011379:Prognosis; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D011446:Prospective Studies; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D018805:Sepsis / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology; D000683:Serum Amyloid P-Component / Q000032:analysis / Q000378:metabolism; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013997:Time Factors; D000099153:Pentraxins
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D002097:C-Reactive Protein; D000683:Serum Amyloid P-Component; D000099153:Pentraxins