Procalcitonin kinetics useful for sepsis diagnosis in major burn patients: Study

The study revealed the following findings:

• Serum PCT concentration rose immediately after burn injury.
• Factors associated with increased PCT level in the 1st week after burn include greater burn area (>70% TBSA) and lower age (≤14 years).
• Correlations between PCT kinetics after burn and the risk of early development of sepsis and mortality were observed.
• At the onset of sepsis, serum PCT increased significantly compared to its basal level in the 48 h before diagnosis.
• The area under the receiver operating characteristics curve of PCT concentration and its kinetic changes was 0.788 and 0.826, respectively.
• PCT kinetics showed better accuracy than PCT concentration in discrimination of Gram-positive sepsis.
• The optimal diagnostic thresholds for PCT concentration and its kinetics were 1.41 ng/mL, and a 1.34-fold elevation compared to the baseline level.

"PCT kinetics in the early stage after burn was a prognostic factor for sepsis and mortality among major burn patients," wrote the authors. "Serum PCT levels could be a diagnostic biomarker for sepsis patients with major burns."

Reference:

Jianglin Tan, Ning Li, Yali Gong, Lili Yuan, Junyi Zhou, Gaoxing Luo, Procalcitonin kinetics early after severe burn injury and its value in diagnosis of sepsis, Burns, Volume 47, Issue 8, 2021, Pages 1802-1809, ISSN 0305-4179, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.burns.2021.02.024.