Journal List > Korean J Lab Med > v.29(6) > 1011593

Hur, Moon, Yun, Kim, Kim, and Lee: Comparison of Diagnostic Utility between Procalcitonin and C-Reactive Protein for the Patients with Blood Culture-Positive Sepsis

Abstract

Background:

Procalcitonin (PCT) is a relatively new marker for bacterial infections, and its diagnostic utility has been variable across the studies. We investigated the diagnostic utility of PCT for the patients with blood culture-positive sepsis, and compared it with that of C-reactive protein (CRP).

Methods:

In 1,270 consecutive blood samples, PCT and CRP were simultaneously measured and results were compared according to the five categories of PCT concentrations (<0.05 ng/mL; 0.05-0.49 ng/mL; 0.5-1.99 ng/mL; 2-9.99 ng/mL; ≥10 ng/mL). In 506 samples, they were further analyzed according to the result of blood culture. PCT and CRP were measured using enzyme-linked fluorescent assay (bioMerieux Co., France) and rate nephelometry (Beckman Coulter Co., USA), respectively. Their diagnostic utilities were compared using ROC curves.

Results:

The mean concentrations of CRP in five categories of PCT were 15.4 mg/L, 42.1 mg/L, 101.2 mg/L, 125.0 mg/L, 167.1 mg/L, respectively (P< 0.0001). Both PCT and CRP showed significant differences between the two positive and negative groups of blood culture (PCT, 8.47 vs 2.44 ng/mL, P=0.0133; CRP, 110.48 vs 59.78 mg/L, P< 0.0001). The areas under the ROC curves (95% confidence interval) for PCT and CRP were 0.720 (0.644-0.788) and 0.558 (0.478-0.636), respectively, and showed a significant difference (P=0.005).

Conclusions:

The diagnostic utility of PCT is superior to that of CRP for the patients with blood culture-positive sepsis. PCT seems to be reliable for sepsis diagnosis, and may provide useful information for the critically ill patients.

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Fig. 1.
Comparison of C-reactive protein according to the five groups of procalcitonin concentration. P<0.0001 (F value=100.11, ANOVA). The central box represents the values from the lower to upper quartile (25 to 75 percentile) with the middle line for mean. Procalcitonin concentrations were divided into five groups: see Table 1.
kjlm-29-529f1.tif
Fig. 2.
Comparison of PCT levels between the two groups of blood culture (8.47 ng/mL vs 2.44 ng/mL, P=0.0133, t-test). The central box represents the values from the lower to upper quartile (25 to 75 percentile) with the middle line for mean.
Abbreviations: PCT, procalcitonin; n, number.
kjlm-29-529f2.tif
Fig. 3.
Comparison of C-reactive protein levels between the two groups of blood culture (110.48 mg/L vs 59.78 mg/L, P<0.0001, t-test). The central box represents the values from the lower to upper quartile (25 to 75 percentile) with the middle line for mean. Abbreviations: CRP, C-reactive protein; n, number.
kjlm-29-529f3.tif
Fig. 4.
Pairwise comparison of ROC curves of PCT and CRP (n= 161). The areas under the ROC curve (95% confidence interval, CI) for PCT and CRP were 0.720 (0.644-0.788) and 0.558 (0.478-0.636), respectively, with a significant difference between the areas of 0.162 (95% CI=0.048-0.227, P=0.005).
Abbreviations: See Table 1.
kjlm-29-529f4.tif
Table 1.
Distribution of study population according to the five groups of procalcitonin concentrations
Groups Total (N) Blood culture (N) Results of blood culture (N)
Negative Positive
I 420 0 0 0
II 487 334 306 (91.6%) 28 (8.4%)
III 181 88 68 (77.3%) 20 (22.7%)
IV 125 59 38 (64.4%) 21 (35.6%)
V 57 25 11 (44%) 14 (56.0%)

Procalcitonin concentrations were: group I, <0.05 ng/mL; group II, 0.05-0.49 ng/mL; group III, 0.5-1.99 ng/mL; group IV, 2-9.99 ng/mL; group V, ≥10 ng/mL.

Table 2.
Comparison of ROC curves at each pair of PCT and CRP cutoff values
Cutoff value PCT (ng/mL) vs CRP (mg/L) AUC (95% CI) Difference between areas (95% CI) P value
PCT CRP
0.5 vs 8.0 0.720 0.558 0.162 0.005
  (0.644-0.788) (0.478-0.636) (0.048-0.277)  
0.5 vs 50.0 0.711 0.530 0.181 0.005
  (0.627-0.785) (0.443-0.616) (0.056-0.306)  
0.5 vs 100.0 0.712 0.531 0.181 0.013
  (0.615-0.796) (0.430-0.629) (0.038-0.324)  

Abbreviations: PCT, procalcitonin; CRP, C-reactive protein; AUC, area under the curve; CI, confidence interval.

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