Diagnostic accuracy of presepsin (sCD14-ST) as a biomarker of infection and sepsis in the emergency department.
BACKGROUND
Presepsin is a promising biomarker for the diagnosis and prognosis of sepsis. However, results reported about its value to diagnose sepsis in an emergency department (ED) are controversial, probably due to differences in the design of the studies. We have evaluated the diagnostic accuracy of presepsin for infection and sepsis, compared with procalcitonin (PCT) and C-reactive protein (CRP), in patients presenting to the emergency department (ED) with suspected infection.


METHODS
223 patients with suspected infection were enrolled for the study. Blood samples were collected on admission for measurement of biomarkers. Definitive diagnosis was obtained afterwards by analysis of digital medical records. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was conducted to determine the diagnostic accuracy.


RESULTS
Infection was confirmed in 200 patients, including 130 with non-complicated infection and 70 with sepsis. Median CRP, PCT and presepsin levels were significantly higher in patients with infection and sepsis. PCT was the biomarker with the highest performance for infection (ROC AUC: 0.910); for sepsis, PCT (ROC AUC: 0.815) and presepsin (ROC AUC: 0.775) shown a similar performance.


CONCLUSIONS
Although presepsin is a valuable biomarker for diagnosis of infection and sepsis, its diagnostic accuracy in our study does not improve that of PCT. Its introduction in clinical practice is not justified.
Clinical Chemistry Laboratory, Santa Lucía Hospital, Cartagena, Spain. Electronic address: guadianarom@yahoo.es.
Luis García
LG
de Guadiana Romualdo
Clinical Chemistry Laboratory, Santa Lucía Hospital, Cartagena, Spain.
Patricia Esteban
PE
Torrella
Intensive Care Unit, Santa Lucía Hospital, Cartagena, Spain.
Sergio Rebollo
SR
Acebes
Clinical Chemistry Laboratory, Santa Lucía Hospital, Cartagena, Spain.
María Dolores Albaladejo
MDA
Otón
Intensive Care Unit, Santa Lucía Hospital, Cartagena, Spain.
Roberto Jiménez
RJ
Sánchez
Clinical Chemistry Laboratory, Santa Lucía Hospital, Cartagena, Spain.
Ana Hernando
AH
Holgado
Clinical Chemistry Laboratory, Santa Lucía Hospital, Cartagena, Spain.
Enrique Jiménez
EJ
Santos
Intensive Care Unit, Santa Lucía Hospital, Cartagena, Spain.
Alejandro Ortín
AO
Freire
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D018950:Lipopolysaccharide Receptors / Q000097:blood*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010446:Peptide Fragments / Q000097:blood*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D018805:Sepsis / Q000097:blood* / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis*
D015415:Biomarkers; D018950:Lipopolysaccharide Receptors; D010446:Peptide Fragments; C000594167:presepsin protein, human
C-reactive protein; Diagnostic accuracy; Emergency Department; Infection; Presepsin; Procalcitonin; Sepsis