Purpose. Liver dysfunction and failure are severe complications of sepsis and result in poor outcome and increased mortality. The underlying pathologic mechanisms of hepatocyte dysfunction and necrosis during sepsis are only incompletely understood. Here, we investigated whether procalcitonin, a biomarker of sepsis, modulates liver cell function and viability. Materials and Methods. Employing a...

OBJECTIVES This study evaluates the potential prognostic value of serial measurements of different biomarkers (procalcitonin [PCT], C-reactive protein and leukocytes [CRP]) in septic shock patients. DESIGN Prospective observational study. SETTING Intensive care unit of a third-level University Hospital. PATIENTS The study comprised a total of 88 septic shock patients defined using the 200...

CONTEXT Approximately 15-20% of cases of acute pancreatitis are categorized as severe. There is a lack of accurate predictors of disease severity. Several studies have evaluated the usefulness of procalcitonin as a marker of severe disease. Reports regarding the diagnostic accuracy of procalcitonin are conflicting. OBJECTIVE The present meta-analysis was carried out to evaluate the relevance ...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate procalcitonin clearance as a prognostic biomarker in septic shock. DESIGN Prospective, observational pilot study. SETTING Intensive care unit. PATIENTS Patients admitted to the ICU due to septic shock and multiorgan dysfunction. INTERVENTIONS Serum concentrations of procalcitonin were determined within 12h of onset of septic shock and multiorgan dysfunction (coinci...

BACKGROUND The semi-quantitative serum procalcitonin test (Brahms PCT-Q) is available conveniently in clinical practice. However, there are few data on the relationship between results for this semi-quantitative procalcitonin test and clinical outcomes of community-acquired pneumonia (CAP). We investigated the usefulness of this procalcitonin test for predicting the clinical outcomes of CAP in ...

Procalcitonin mRNA is abundantly synthesized in the thyroid gland in mammals. In recent years, procalcitonin or its posttranslational product calcitonin, has been identified in numerous non-thyroidal adult tissues. Nevertheless, little is known about the implications of procalcitonin in development. We have previously discovered that chick embryo expresses procalcitonin in the developing floor ...

Background Few studies compared the diagnostic value of procalcitonin with a combination of other tests including lactate and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein in the prediction of pathogenic bacteremia in emergency department adult patients. Methods We performed a retrospective study assessing the differences in performances of procalcitonin at a cutoff of 0.5 ng/mL, lactate at a cutoff of...

In patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), discriminating between bacterial infections and disease flares is often difficult due to the similar clinical presentations and laboratory findings. The differentiation in patients with IBD is important because treatments for each clinical condition are different and commonly opposite. Especially, early detection and treatment of infection in t...

procalcitonin (pct) is a precursor peptide for the hormone calcitonin and is frequently increased in overt sepsis. the aim of this study was to test diagnostic accuracy of procalcitonin among patients with positive systemic inflammatory response syndrome (sirs) in identifying sepsis. in this cross sectional study, from 563 patients with positive sirs admitted through the emergency department of...

OBJECTIVE This study tried to assess sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive value of procalcitonin for diagnosis of neonatal bacterial infections. METHODS This prospective cross sectional study was carried out during an 18-month period in NICU and neonatal wards of Besat Hospital in Hamedan province, Iran. 39 symptomatic infants with clinical and laboratory findings in fav...