Chest
Clinical InvestigationsUsefulness of Procalcitonin Levels in Community-Acquired Pneumonia According to the Patients Outcome Research Team Pneumonia Severity Index
Section snippets
Setting and Population Studied
A prospective, population-based investigation of CAP was conducted over a 24-month period (October 15, 1999, through October 14, 2001) at Hospital Universitario de Elche, a 430-bed teaching hospital covering a population of 239,335 people living in three municipalities of the “Health Authority of Bajo Vinalopó,” on the Mediterranean coast of Spain. All adult patients (≥ 15 years old) from this health authority with signs and symptoms compatible with pneumonia over the 24-month study period were
Results
Of 251 patients evaluated from October 15, 1999, to October 14, 2000, 11 patients were subsequently found not to have CAP, leaving 240 patients in the study cohort. The mean age was 59 years (range, 15 to 93 years), and 62.5% were male. In 115 patients (48%), there was one or more underlying disease, mostly diabetes mellitus (n = 55) and COPD (n = 51). Sixty patients (25%) had previously been treated with antibiotics.
The causative pathogen was found in 131 of the 240 patients (54.6%) [56
Discussion
The results of this study suggest that procalcitonin contribution to the evaluation of patients with CAP varies according to severity of pneumonia. While procalcitonin may have a role to predict the microbial etiology in patients with a low PSI score, in patients classified within high PSI risk classes it is a prognostic marker rather than a predictor of etiology.
To our knowledge, this is the largest study to date performed in adults with CAP in which procalcitonin serum levels have been
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2019, American Journal of the Medical SciencesComprehensive analysis of prognostic factors in hospitalized patients with pneumonia occurring outside hospital: Serum albumin is not less important than pneumonia severity assessment scale
2018, Journal of Infection and ChemotherapyCitation Excerpt :Inflammation markers might not be independent prognostic markers when parameters reported to influence the prognosis, especially including albumin, were comprehensively analyzed in patients with pneumonia occurring outside hospital. In fact, investigators who reported the prognostic significance of PCT did not include albumin as a prognostic factor in their studies [9–12]. PCT is not reported to increase in sera of elderly patients [33].
This work was performed at Hospital General Universitario de Elche, Alicante, Spain.
Reproduction of this article is prohibited without written permission from the American College of Chest Physicians (www.chestjournal.org/misc/reprints.shtml).