Differences in the effectiveness of serum biomarkers for the diagnosis of bacterial infections in adult and elderly patients admitted to the emergency department.
OBJECTIVE
This study aimed to evaluate the superiority of procalcitonin (PCT), C-reactive protein (CRP) levels, white blood cell (WBC) counts, and erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) in discriminating among infection, systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS), and sepsis, and their differences according to age groups.


METHODS
The patients were divided into an adult group and a geriatric group (over 65 years) and classified according to the presence of infection, SIRS, and sepsis. The patients' laboratory values (PCT, CRP, WBC, ESR), demographic characteristics, and vital signs were taken into consideration.


RESULTS
When the laboratory parameters were evaluated, there were no significant differences in the PCT, WBC, and ESR values between the age groups (P > 0.05). CRP was significantly higher in the adult patient group compared to the geriatric group (P < 0.001). When the two groups were compared in terms of infection, there were no significant differences in the PCT levels and the WBC count (P > 0.05) in SIRS and sepsis. In addition, the CRP levels and the ESR were significantly higher in the adult sepsis patients when compared with the geriatric patients (P < 0.001).


CONCLUSIONS
PCT levels do not distinguish among infection, SIRS, and sepsis in adult and geriatric age groups.
Hava
H
Yilmaz
Latif
L
Duran
Keramettin
K
Yanik
Mehmet
M
Altuntaş
Mustafa
M
Sünbül
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D001424:Bacterial Infections / Q000097:blood* / Q000175:diagnosis*; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood; D001799:Blood Sedimentation; D002097:C-Reactive Protein; D002116:Calcitonin / Q000097:blood; D015740:Calcitonin Gene-Related Peptide; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital; D005260:Female; D015577:Geriatric Assessment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D007958:Leukocyte Count; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011498:Protein Precursors / Q000097:blood; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D018805:Sepsis / Q000097:blood; D018746:Systemic Inflammatory Response Syndrome / Q000097:blood; D055815:Young Adult
D015415:Biomarkers; C000606589:CALCA protein, human; D011498:Protein Precursors; D002116:Calcitonin; D002097:C-Reactive Protein; D015740:Calcitonin Gene-Related Peptide