Clinical significance of serum procalcitonin levels on admission in patients with cirrhosis of liver

Abstract

Procalcitonin is a protein, calcitonin precursor
which in healthy individuals is produced
by cells of thyroid gland. The halflife
of procalcitinin in serum is 20-24 hrs
and it is used as a marker of infection.
Incidence of bacterial infections in patients
with liver disease is high. Due to
liver dysfunction immune reactivity is significantly
impaired and bacterial infections
are more frequent. Clinical signs of
infection such as fever or tachycardia are
often non-specific or even absent. Procalcitonin
has greatest sensitivity(85 percent)
and specificity(91 percent) for differentiating
patients with SIRS from
those with sepsis. Procalcitonin is a useful
biochemical marker to differentiate
sepsis from other non-infectious causes
of systemic inflammatory response syndrome.