PROCALCITONIN TO DETECT INVASIVE BACTERIAL INFECTION IN NON-TOXIC-APPEARING INFANTS WITH FEVER WITHOUT APPARENT SOURCE IN THE EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT

The reliability of procalcitonin as a predictor of invasive infection in infants <36 months of age with fever and nontoxic appearance was assessed in 868 patients, 15 (1.7%) of whom had invasive infection. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve for procalcitonin was 0.87 (opti...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Luaces-Cubells C, Mintegi S, García-García JJ, Astobiza E, Garrido-Romero R, Velasco-Rodríguez J, Benito J
Format: article
Status:Published version
Publication Date:2012
Country:España
Institution:Fundació Sant Joan de Déu
Repository:r-FSJD. Repositorio Institucional de Producción Científica de la Fundació Sant Joan de Déu
OAI Identifier:oai:fsjd.fundanetsuite.com:p205
Online Access:https://fsjd.fundanetsuite.com/Publicaciones/ProdCientif/PublicacionFrw.aspx?id=205
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:bacterial infections/diagnosis
C-reactive protein
procalcitonin
Description
Summary:The reliability of procalcitonin as a predictor of invasive infection in infants <36 months of age with fever and nontoxic appearance was assessed in 868 patients, 15 (1.7%) of whom had invasive infection. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve for procalcitonin was 0.87 (optimum cutoff 0.9 ng/mL, sensitivity 86.7%, specificity 90.5%), whereas for C-reactive protein it was 0.79 (optimum cutoff 91 mg/L, sensitivity 33.3%, specificity 95.9%). In infants with fever of <8 hours duration, the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve was 0.97 for procalcitonin and 0.76 for C-reactive protein. Procalcitonin was a useful biomarker to predict invasive infection in non-toxic-appearing infants with fever without apparent focus, particularly in febrile episodes of <8 hours duration.