Search results for "Procalcitonin"

Utility of Procalcitonin for Diagnosis of Superimposed Infections in Patients With Acute Heart Failure.

2016

Respiratory infections are well-known precipitant factors for heart failure decompensations. Nevertheless, the diagnosis of life-threatening infections, such as pneumonia, is challenging. Pneumonia and acute heart failure often display overlapping clinical findings and, in other cases, more accurate infection-related findings are missing. In recent years, procalcitonin has emerged as a promising tool for early and accurate diagnosis of pneumonia and, interestingly, for guiding antibiotic therapy in patients with acute heart failure. We discuss two cases of acute heart failure with high procalcitonin on admission and different clinical outcomes. In this setting, procalcitonin may be a useful…

Procalcitonin and community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) in children

2015

The role of procalcitonin (PCT) as a biomarker for sepsis in adults is well documented, while its role in infections affecting neonatal children remains controversial. Among these infections, Community-Acquired pneumonia (CAP) has been studied extensively, because it's the second cause of death in children in developing countries, and one of the most frequent causes of hospitalization in industrialized countries. The PubMed database and the Cochrane Library were used to search for the following keywords: CAP, procalcitonin, and children. Thirteen articles were studied to determine the role of PCT in CAP management, specifically its usefulness for distinguishing pneumococcal infections from …

Procalcitonin levels in plasma in oncohaematologic patients with and without bacterial infections.

2004

Abstract Background: The flogosis markers currently in use show both low sensitivity and specificity, particularly in neoplastic and degenerative diseases. Procalcitonin (PCT) is a pro-peptide of calcitonin produced mainly but not only in the C-cells of the thyroid glands and, as several studies show, PCT levels in plasma increase during infections. Bacterial infections are also the main cause of death in oncological patients. Furthermore, in patients with leukaemia in chemotherapy recovery, infections often induce relapses. The aim of the present study is to detect PCT levels in plasma in oncohaematologic patients with and without infections. Methods: The study was carried out on 54 patien…

Procalcitonin as a marker of Candida species detection by blood culture and polymerase chain reaction in septic patients

2014

Background: The aim of our study is to test procalcitonin (PCT) as surrogate marker of identification of Candida spp. by blood culture (BC) and real-time-polymerase chain reaction (PCR), whether alone or in association with bacteria, in septic patients.Methods: We performed a single-centre retrospective study. We reviewed the clinical charts of patients with a diagnosis of severe sepsis or septic shock treated at our general intensive care unit from March 2009 to March 2013. We analysed all diagnostic episodes consisting of BC, real-time PCR assay and dosage of PCT. We registered age, sex, white blood count, sequential organ failure assessment score and type of admission between medical or …

Is Endocan a Diagnostic Marker for Pneumonia After Cardiac Surgery? The ENDOLUNG Study

2017

Background Postoperative pneumonia is frequent after cardiac surgery and is associated with increased morbidity and mortality. We tested the hypothesis that endocan is an early biomarker for the detection of pneumonia after cardiac surgery. Methods Between January and May 2016, 155 patients scheduled to undergo elective cardiac surgery with cardiopulmonary bypass were prospectively included in the study. Serum level of endocan was measured at five timepoints (preoperative, and at 6, 24, 48, and 72 hours after the end of surgery). Procalcitonin and C-reactive protein were measured at 24 and 72 hours. The preoperative and postoperative characteristics of the patients were recorded. Independen…

Continuous Intravenous Administration of Granulocyte-Colony-Stimulating Factors—A Breakthrough in the Treatment of Cancer Patients with Febrile Neutr…

2021

(1) Background: Febrile neutropenia (FN) remains one of the most challenging problems in medical oncology and is a very severe side effect of chemotherapy. Its late consequences, when it is recurrent or of a severe grade, are dose reduction and therapy delays. Current guidelines allow the administration of granulocyte-colony-stimulating factors (G-CSF) for profound FN (except for the case when a pegylated form of G-CSF is administrated with prophylactic intention) in addition to antibiotics and supportive care. (2) Methods: This is a prospective study that included 96 patients with confirmed malignancy, treated with chemotherapy, who developed FN during their oncological therapy, and were h…

The Association between Nutritional Status and In-Hospital Mortality of COVID-19 in Critically-Ill Patients in the ICU

2021

Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has become one of the leading causes of death worldwide. The impact of poor nutritional status on increased mortality and prolonged ICU (intensive care unit) stay in critically ill patients is well-documented. This study aims to assess how nutritional status and BMI (body mass index) affected in-hospital mortality in critically ill COVID-19 patients Methods: We conducted a retrospective study and analysed medical records of 286 COVID-19 patients admitted to the intensive care unit of the University Clinical Hospital in Wroclaw (Poland). Results: A total of 286 patients were analysed. In the sample group, 8% of patients who died had a BMI withi…

Diagnóstico precoz de la neumonía asociada al ventilador. Evaluación seriada de biomarcadores en minilavado broncoalveolar y monitorización microbiol…

2015

La Neumonía asociada a ventilación mecánica (NAV) es un tipo de neumonía nosocomial que se desarrolla tras más de 48 horas de VM, siendo una complicación frecuente y grave cuyo pronóstico se ensombrece por un diagnóstico y tratamiento tardío. Desgraciadamente, con las herramientas actuales no siempre es posible llegar a un diagnóstico correcto y definitivo. El desarrollo de la misma es un proceso dinámico y dado que debe existir una respuesta inflamatoria precoz ante la infección, inicialmente compartimentalizada a nivel pulmonar, nuestra HIPÓTESIS de partida consiste en que la determinación de mediadores inflamatorios liberados durante dicha reacción a nivel pulmonar debería facilitar y an…

Biomarker-guided management in acute heart failure: is there light at the end of the tunnel?

2020

A Machine Learning Model to Predict Intravenous Immunoglobulin-Resistant Kawasaki Disease Patients: A Retrospective Study Based on the Chongqing Popu…

2021

Objective: We explored the risk factors for intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) resistance in children with Kawasaki disease (KD) and constructed a prediction model based on machine learning algorithms.Methods: A retrospective study including 1,398 KD patients hospitalized in 7 affiliated hospitals of Chongqing Medical University from January 2015 to August 2020 was conducted. All patients were divided into IVIG-responsive and IVIG-resistant groups, which were randomly divided into training and validation sets. The independent risk factors were determined using logistic regression analysis. Logistic regression nomograms, support vector machine (SVM), XGBoost and LightGBM prediction models wer…