Procalcitonin as an early marker of invasive bacterial infection in febrile children aged 1 month to 5 years of age

Abstract

Objectives: To evaluate the role of serum procalcitonin as a marker of invasive bacterial infection in febrile children between 1 month to 5 years of age. METHOD: Febrile Children aged between 1 month to 5 years with temperature at admission of ≥ 38 0C (100.4 0F) and with no prior antibiotic use during the current febrile illness were studied prospectively. Results: At a cutoff value of 2 ng/ml for serum PCT levels the sensitivity of 90%, specificity 76%, positive predictability value 78%, negative predictability value of 88%, area under curve (AUC) of 0.935 with standard error of 0.0221 and 95% confidence interval of 0.892 to 0.979 was obtained. The optimum sensitivity and specificity was 86% and 84% respectively at PCT level of ≥ 2.27 ng/ml. Conclusions: Considering this high sensitivity and significant area under curve (AUC) it could be concluded that Serum PCT levels could serve a reliable early biomarker of invasive bacterial infection.