The Clinical Values Of Serum Procatcitonin In Community Acquired Pneumonia

Background and Objective: Community-acquired pneumonia（CAP） is a commoninfectious diseases that threaten human health, looking for a body go-od stability, simple,effective, and easy to detect diagnostic and therapeutic index is the inevitable. Serumprocalcitonin (procalcitonin, PCT) as a marker for a diagnosis of bacterial infection, hasbeen widely applied in the diagnosis of infectious diseases. This article aims is to explore thevalue of PCT in community acquired pneumonia by observing the changes of PCT, in ourhospital Respiratory patients with community-acquired pneumonia.Methods: This research collects50cases of hoapitalized patients ho were diagnosed asCAP in our department of respiratory medicine during March2011-March2012,by clinicalsymptoms,laboratory tests,chest imaging. At the same time, collected15cases of healthypersonsch whoes routine blood test and chest radiograph were normal are medicalqualifier,as a healthy control group.The data of serum PCT, white blood cell count,neutrophil percentage and C-reactive protein (CRP) of the patients were collected,afteradmission1day and8days,then,compared each other.Results: Based on t the results of bacterial culture，the50CAP were divided into thebacterial infection group (22cases) with non-bacterial infection group (28cases).Based onthe severity of the disease，they were divided into the severe pneumonia group (8cases) andnon-severe pneumonia (42cases).The serum PCT, white blood cell count, neutrophilpercentage and CRP in the bacterial infection group were significantly higher than innon-bacterial infection group.And they were higher in non-bacterial infection group than inhealthy controls. Serum PCT, white blood cell count and neutrophil percentage were ofstatistically significant differences between bacterial infection group and non-bacterialinfection group (P <0.01), whereas CRP was no significant difference (P>0.05). Consinderbacterial culture as the gold standard diagnosis of bacterial infection, the PCT had highestsensitivity in diagnosis of bacterial CAP, followed by neutrophil percentage, and whiteblood cell count minimum; its specificity was the same order.The serum PCT、WBC,neutrophil percentage and CRP in severe pneumonia group were higher than non-severepneumonia group.The serum PCT between the two groups was statistically significant differences (P<0.01). But between the two groups the WBC, neutrophil percentage, CRP,were not statistically different.After treatment, the bacterial infection group andnon-bacterial infection group were significantly lower than the healthy control group,andthey were not statistically different (P>0.05).Conclusion: Determination of the PCT has some auxiliary value in the diagnosis ofCAP.The PCT can be used as a new index clinical identification of bacterial infection andnon-bacterial infection. It has guiding significance to rational use of antibiotics inRespiratory Medicine. PCT levels also can assess the role of the severity of pneumonia.