RESUMO
Background and purpose:Previous researches have shown that procalcitonin differentiates infec-tious from non-infectious fever and assesses the severity of infectious diseases. This study aimed to investigate the clin-ical value of procalcitonin in patients with chemotherapy-induced febrile neutropenia.Methods:A total of 147 patients with chemotherapy-induced febrile neutropenia admitted to intensive care unit from Jan. 2012 to Dec. 2014 were di-vided into infectious group and fever of unknown origin group according to clinical symptoms, signs and etiology. The infectious group was divided into sepsis, severe sepsis, and septic shock groups according to the severity of infection. The procalcitonin levels were compared between different groups.Results:A procalcitonin cut-off value>0.935 ng/mL provided a sensitivity of 90.0%, speciifcity of 90.0% and AUC=0.905. The procalcitonin level of the infectious group was signiifcantly higher than that of the fever of unknown origin group [1.805 (1.268-2.523) ng/mLvs 0.555 (0.398-0.818) ng/mL,P<0.001]. There is a signiifcant difference between the severe sepsis group and the sepsis group [13.885 (7.600-17.961) ng/mLvs 1.805 (1.268-2.563) ng/mL,P<0.001]. Compared with the severe sepsis group, the value of procalcitonin in the septic shock group was signiifcantly higher [23.800 (20.050-30.478) ng/mLvs 13.885 (4.955-19.133) ng/mL,P<0.001].Conclusion:Plasma procalcitonin is a useful marker for diagnosing neutropenia in patients with infection. Meanwhile, procalcitonin can be used to assess the severity of infection in patients with neutropenia.