Authors

Tasabehji MW*; Al-Quobaili F.* and Al Daher N

Abstract

 Procalcitonin is one of the parameters which may be used for distinguishing between systemic inflammatory response whether it's infection or not infection. To assess the diagnostic value of this prohormone, we performed measurements in 75 patients admitted with acute systemic inflammatory response and suspected infection. The final diagnosis of these patients was SIRS in 38 patients, sepsis in 22, severe sepsis in 10, and suspected viral sepsis in 5, the study included 25 healthy donors as a control group. Mean PCT concentrations on admission were 0.37 ng/ml for SIRS, 3.31 for sepsis, 40.2 for severe  sepsis, and 0.24 for suspected viral sepsis. Elevated PCT concentrations appear - according to this study - to be a promising indicator of sepsis and it's severity in newly admitted, critically ill patients capable of complementing clinical signs and routine laboratory parameters suggestive of acute infection.