Performance of plasma calprotectin as a biomarker of early sepsis: a pilot study.

AIM

To determine the performance of plasma calprotectin as a marker of sepsis on intensive care unit (ICU) admission and as a marker of mortality day 30 post-ICU admission.

MATERIALS & METHODS: Consecutive ICU patients were allocated to: sepsis (n = 15), postoperative inflammation (n = 23) and intoxication without inflammation (n = 7) groups.

RESULTS

Calprotectin was 4.3 (2.6-8.2; mg/l; median [interquartile range]) in the sepsis, 2.8 (1.6-4.4) in the postoperative and 0.7 (0.4-1.6) in the intoxication groups. Area under the receiver operating characteristic curve for sepsis versus intoxication group was: 0.95, for sepsis versus postoperative groups: 0.65 and for survivors versus nonsurvivors: 0.70.

CONCLUSION

Calprotectin was a sensitive marker of systemic inflammation, is a potential sepsis marker and performed well as mortality predictor in this pilot study.