title: Should procalcitonin be measured routinely in acute decompensated heart failure?
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To elucidate the prognostic role of procalcitonin (PCT) in patients with acute decompensated heart failure (ADHF) without clinical signs of infection at admission.
  
  
  METHODS
  Serial measurements of PCT and NT-proBNP were performed in 168 patients, aged 68 ± 10 years with ADHF followed by 3-month outcome evaluation.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Cox regression analysis demonstrated significant predictive value of baseline PCT for all-cause death/hospitalization (area under the curve: 0.67; p = 0.013) at 90th day. The patients with persistently elevated PCT or with an increase during the first 72 h of hospitalization had the worst prognosis (p = 0.0002).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Baseline and serial in-hospital measurements of PCT have significant prognostic properties for 3-month all-cause mortality/hospitalization in patients with ADHF without clinical signs of infection at admission.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, Clinical Hospital Zvezdara, Belgrade, Serbia.
authors.forename: Goran
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Loncar
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, Campus Virchow, Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany.|Department of Cardiology, Campus Benjamin Franklin, Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Verena
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Tscholl
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, Campus Virchow, Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Elvis
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Tahirovic
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, Clinical Hospital Zvezdara, Belgrade, Serbia.
authors.forename: Nikola
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Sekularac
authors.affiliation: Marx-Statistics, Nuremberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Almuth
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Marx
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, Campus Virchow, Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Danilo
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Obradovic
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, Campus Virchow, Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Jovan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Veskovic
authors.affiliation: Departments of Cardiology & Research & Education, General Hospital Celje, Celje, Slovenia.|Faculty of Medicine, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
authors.forename: Mitja
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lainscak
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, Applied Cachexia Research, Charité Medical School, Berlin, Germany.|Center for Cardiovascular Research (CCR), Charité Medical School, Campus Mitte, Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Stephan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: von Haehling
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, Campus Virchow, Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Frank
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Edelmann
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, Clinical Hospital Zvezdara, Belgrade, Serbia.|School of Medicine, University of Belgrade, Serbia.
authors.forename: Aleksandra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Arandjelovic
authors.affiliation: Clinic for Cardiovascular Diseases, Clinical Center Nis, Serbia.
authors.forename: Svetlana
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Apostolovic
authors.affiliation: Clinic for Cardiovascular Diseases, Clinical Center Nis, Serbia.
authors.forename: Dragana
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Stanojevic
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, Campus Virchow, Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Burkert
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Pieske
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, Campus Virchow, Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Tobias
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Trippel
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, Campus Virchow, Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Hans-Dirk
authors.initials: HD
authors.lastname: Dungen
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D000368:Aged; D019540:Area Under Curve; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000032:analysis; D002116:Calcitonin / Q000032:analysis*; D015740:Calcitonin Gene-Related Peptide; D005260:Female; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000401:mortality; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D020097:Natriuretic Peptide, Brain / Q000032:analysis; D010446:Peptide Fragments / Q000032:analysis; D011379:Prognosis; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D011498:Protein Precursors / Q000032:analysis*; D012372:ROC Curve
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; C000606589:CALCA protein, human; D010446:Peptide Fragments; D011498:Protein Precursors; C109794:pro-brain natriuretic peptide (1-76); D020097:Natriuretic Peptide, Brain; D002116:Calcitonin; D015740:Calcitonin Gene-Related Peptide
keywords: ADHF; NT-proBNP; procalcitonin; prognosis; serial measurements