ABSTRACT
Objective To investigate the change and clinical significance of serum procalcitonin (PCT) level in patients with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP).Methods One hundred and forty-five CAP patients were enrolled.Serum PCT level was measured by immunofluorescent antibody staining method.CURB-65 score and pneumonia severity index (PSI) score were used to evaluate the severity of the patients with CAP.Correlations between PCT and blood white blood cell (WBC) count,serum C-reactive protein (CRP),PSI score,CURB-65 score,hospitalization duration and mortality were analyzed with Pearson correlation analysis,Logistic regression analysis and so on.Results Serum PCT in patients with CAP showed positively correlated with CURB-65 score and PSI score (r =0.606,0.943,P＜ 0.01 ),and serum PCT was also positively correlated with age,serum CRP and hospitalization duration (r =0.753,0.233,0.281,P ＜0.01),but it wasn't correlated with blood WBC count (r =0.152,P ＞0.05).Logistic regression analysis showed that each increment of 1 μ g/L for serum PCT would increase 2.828-fold for the risk of death in CAP patients.Conclusions Serum PCT predicts the sensitivity and specificity of CAP with a similar prognostic accuracy with CURB-65 score and PSI score.Serum PCT in patients with CAP correlates with hospitalization duration and mortality.Therefore,it is a promising prognostic marker to evaluate the severity and outcome of CAP.It may serve as a useful marker for clinicians to evaluate the severity and prognosis of CAP.