Procalcitonin Identifies Cell Injury, Not Bacterial Infection, in Acute Liver Failure.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Because acute liver failure (ALF) patients share many clinical features with severe sepsis and septic shock, identifying bacterial infection clinically in ALF patients is challenging. Procalcitonin (PCT) has proven to be a useful marker in detecting bacterial infection. We sought to determine whether PCT discriminated between presence and absence of infection in patients with ALF.

Method

Retrospective analysis of data and samples of 115 ALF patients from the United States Acute Liver Failure Study Group randomly selected from 1863 patients were classified for disease severity and ALF etiology. Twenty uninfected chronic liver disease (CLD) subjects served as controls.

Results

Procalcitonin concentrations in most samples were elevated, with median values for

SUBMITTER: Rule JA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4579124 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature