Qom University of Medical Sciences Journal

Background and Objectives: Nowadays sepsis is one of the major causes of mortality in severely ill patients in ICU. At least part of mortality rate in sepsis is due to fewer number of  specific clinical symptoms for prompt diagnosis. Moreover, due to lack of specific marker for detection of this disease, problems occur in differentiation of infectious and non-infectious factors. In recent years, there have been some reports of increase in serum level of procalcitonin in these patients but the correlation between PCT with severity and outcome of disease in patients with sepsis in ICU is not yet known. The aim of this study was to examine the correlation between severity and outcome with procalcitonin (PCT) levels in these patients.

Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted on patients with bacterial infectious diseases in ICU. Sampling was don on day 1 and day 3 and day 7 of admission to ICU. A semi-quantitative PCT-Q test for measurement of procalcitonin was used. After that sepsis severity and outcome of disease were compared with procalcitonin levels. Data were then analyzed by SPSS and the results were compared using Pearson chi-square test.

Results: Thirty five patients (22 men and 13 women) had internal criteria for inclusion in this study. Eighteen patients died. There was a direct correlation with severity of disease (p<0.01) but there was not any correlation between high Serum procalcitonin concentrations (≥10ng/ml) known and mortality.

Conclusion: The results of this study indicate that there is a correlation between severity of disease and procalcitonin levels. Therefore, it is recommended that measurement of serum procalcitonin be done to determine the severity and likely outcome of disease in all patients with sepsis admitted to ICU