Procalcitonin, a propeptide of calcitonin, is an important host response biomarker indicative of infection. In particular, it aids in assessing the severity of infection and its prognosis [2, 3]. Using this severity marker to differentiate two infectious diseases seems unjustified. Both the diseases can have varying degrees of severity and may also be confounded by factors such as immunocomprom...

Despite more than 10 years of research into the usefulness of procalcitonin therapy, Hausfater is right to point out that ‘its exact place in the diagnostic process remains to be defined’ [2]. Both the articles of McLean and of Christ-Crain and Müller have proposed further study of alternative novel biomarkers [3,4]. Early diagnosis of sepsis linked to timely but limited use of antibiotics rema...

For over a decade there has been intense interest given to the role of procalcitonin in the diagnosis and management of sepsis in critically ill patients. Early opinions strongly supported the diagnostic role but data accumulating from numerous subsequent studies are less supportive, even when used in very selective settings. Although there remains sufficient reason to support the use of procal...

INTRODUCTION Biomarkers can be useful for identifying or ruling out sepsis, identifying patients who may benefit from specific therapies or assessing the response to therapy. METHODS We used an electronic search of the PubMed database using the key words "sepsis" and "biomarker" to identify clinical and experimental studies which evaluated a biomarker in sepsis. RESULTS The search retrieved...

The problem of early diagnostics of bacterial complications is particularly true for children with extensive burn trauma (BT). Procalcitonin concentration levels considerably facilitate the diagnosis of sepsis. In all, 50 children with severe burns were included in our research. We conducted histological tests of the burn wound tissues from 13 patients. On comparison of the results of the PCT-t...

Procalcitonin is a widely used marker for the evaluation of infection and sepsis and to guide antibiotic therapy. During the last decade, several studies evaluated its role and diagnostic performance as a surrogate marker for the identification of Candida spp. in suspected invasive candidiasis. A low serum level and a favorable negative predictive value are the main findings for procalcitonin i...

Procalcitonin (PCT) levels are elevated early after birth in newborn infants; however, the physiological features and reference of serum PCT concentrations have not been fully studied in preterm infants. The aims of the current study were to establish an age-specific percentile-based reference curve of serum PCT concentrations in preterm infants and determine the features. The PCT concentration...

Methods We examined cases of DRESS syndrome which were reported to our pharmacovigilance centre 2008-2013 and cases reported in the literature during the same period for which CRP and/or PCT were available. Peak values were recorded whenever possible. The extent of CRP and PCT elevation in cases where DRESS syndrome was not due to antibiotics was also studied as these cases were less likely to ...

OBJECTIVES This study was designed to evaluate the analytical performance of the novel Lumipulse G1200 BRAHMS procalcitonin (PCT) immunoassay. DESIGN AND METHODS This analytical evaluation encompassed the calculation of the limit of blank (LOB), limit of detection (LOD), functional sensitivity, intra- and inter-assay imprecision, confirmation of linearity and a comparison with the Vidas BRAHM...

MS and JS conceived of the study, developed the study design and carried out the statistical analysis. JR was responsible for patient recruitment and clinical follow up, sample collection and DNA-isolation and also carried out the MBL-serum measurements. RS performed the MBLgenotyping. MM participated in the PCT analysis. ST participated in the study design and data analysis. WH participated in...