BACKGROUND This study was aimed to evaluate the analytical performance of the novel Diazyme procalcitonin (PCT) immunoturbidimetric assay on Beckman Coulter AU5800. METHODS Diazyme PCT is a latex-enhanced immunoturbidimetric assay, developed for use on laboratory instrumentations with capability of reading absorbance at 600 nm. This analytical evaluation included the assessment of limit of bl...

Plasma procalcitonin (PCT) is a highly specific marker for the diagnosis of bacterial infections and sepsis. PCT levels are usually low in viral infections, chronic inflammation or postsurgical states. The purpose of this study was to characterize PCT plasma levels in patients with various types of ileus at preoperative stage, where the other inducing factors such as a surgical stress are exclu...

BACKGROUND The diagnostic value of lung ultrasonography (LUS) and procalcitonin (PCT) in the diagnosis of lung infections is known. No studies evaluated the combination of LUS and PCT for the diagnosis of pneumonia in the emergency department (ED). We evaluated the diagnostic accuracy of the combination of LUS and PCT in the diagnosis of pneumonia. METHODS Patients with respiratory symptoms o...

OBJECTIVE Procalcitonin (PCT) is considered to be a specific marker for severe bacterial infections and sepsis. Elevated PCT levels have been reported in active autoimmune diseases without infection. The aim of this study was to assess the diagnostic value of PCT serum levels in ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV) patients with respect to infection, disease activity and drug fever using a high sen...

BACKGROUND Procalcitonin (PCT) is an established marker for diagnosing and monitoring bacterial infections. Full-length PCT [116 amino acids that make up procalcitonin (PCT1-116)] can be truncated, leading to des-Ala-Pro-PCT (des-Alanin-Prolin-Procalcitonin; PCT3-116). Current immunoassays for PCT ("total PCT") use antibodies directed against internal epitopes and are unable to distinguish amin...

Background: The baseline levels of serum procalcitonin (PCT) have not been determined in patients with end-stage renal disease needing renal replacement therapy. The purpose of the present study is to verify the reference range of PCT and parameters affecting its value in patients receiving chronic hemodialysis. Methods: A total of 125 dialytic patients who had no obvious clinical signs of syst...

background and objective: according to the fact that neonatal infection is a challenging diagnosis field, several studies have tried to test sensitivity and specificity of diagnostic tests. this study was conducted to evaluate the sensitivity and specificity of procalcitonin (pct) as a single early marker of neonatal sepsis. materials and methods: in this study, 150 neonates admitted to nicu an...