ABSTRACT
Objective To observe the clinical characteristics of bacterial pneumonia children,and the changes of the serum levels of white blood cells(WBC),C-reactive protein(CRP) and procalcitonin(PCT) before and after anti-bacterial therapy,and to explore the predictive value in early diagnosis and therapy.Methods 130 bacterial pneumonia children were enrolled prospectively as pneumonia group.The clinical data were collected and the serum CRP,PCT and WBC were detected before anti-bacterial therapy (within 24h after admission) and after anti-bacterial therapy (the seventh day after admission).34 healthy children were enrolled as control group.The general clinical characteristics of the children in the pneumonia group were observed.The levels of serum CRP,PCT and WBC between the pneumonia group and the control group were compared.The levels of serum CRP,PCT and WBC before and after anti-bacterial therapy in the bacterial pneumonia children were compared.The clinical value of PCT,CRP and WBC in early predicting bacterial pneumonia was identified.Results Compared with the control group,the sex and age of the bacterial pneumonia children demonstrated no statistically significant differences (t =1.012,P =0.395;x2 =0.003,P =0.959).The mean course of the disease before admission was (5.34 ± 1.27) d,with mean temperature of (38.27 ± 0.96) ℃,and hospital days of (8.92 ± 3.93) d.35 cases were cured,and 95 cases were improved,with no death.The serum levels of CRP,PCT and WBC in pneumonia children on admission were (12.24 ±6.35) mg/L,(0.18 ± 0.15) ng/mL and (14.25 ± 7.59) 109/L,respectively,which were higher than those of the control group,the differences were statistically significant (t =4.650,5.867,2.548,all P ＜ 0.05).The serum levels of CRP,PCT and WBC in pneumonia children before anti-bacterial therapy were higher than after bacterial therapy,showed statistically significant differences(t =8.165,7.232,5.112,all P ＜ 0.05).The area under the curve (AUC)of the PCT,CRP and WBC in early predicting bacterial pneumonia were 0.928,0.834 and 0.718 respectively by the relative operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis (P ＜ 0.05).The sensitivity and specificity of PCT in predicting bacterial pneumonia were higher than CRP and WBC.Conclusion The statistics efficacy of PCT in early predicting children bacterial infection was obviously higher than CRP and PCT.The combined detection of CRP,PCT and WBC was benefit to improve the diagnostic sensitivity and specificity of children with bacterial pneumonia.