Original ContributionsDiagnostic value of procalcitonin levels as an early indicator of sepsis☆,☆☆,★
Section snippets
Patients and methods
Ondokuz Mayis University Hospital is a secondary referral hospital in the middle Black Sea region of Turkey. Most patients are sent to the hospital by either a specialist or an emergency medicine clinician for further investigation. Many of them have risk factors for sepsis such as hospitalization, intravascular catheters, and urinary catheters. Therefore, complex cases and other life-threatening diseases are admitted to our ED from that area.
With approval from the local research ethical
Results
The demographics (ie, age, sex) were similar between the 2 groups except for underlying medical illness. The suspected sepsis group included 19 patients with a history of previous cerebrovascular disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and diabetes mellitus. A summary of these cases is provided in Table 1.Case No. Blood Isolate Age Concomitant Disease PCT Level (μg/L) CRP Level
Discussion
The goals of emergency medicine physicians should be 2-fold: to distinguish sepsis from other causes of SIRS and start early therapy including an antibiotic regimen. The critical point in patients with sepsis is the absence of documented infection at admission to the ED. The use of cultures for identifying the presence of bacteria requires time, which makes it inaccessible for clinical use in the ED, and negative cultures do not exclude the sepsis. Some investigators have suggested that
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Supported by Ondokuz Mayis University Department of Research fund, grant no. T-257.
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Address reprint requests to Hakan Guven, MD, Assistant Professor, Department of Emergency, Ondokuz Mayis University School of Medicine, 55139 Samsun, Turkey.
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