Diagnostic usefulness of sCD163, procalcitonin and neopterin for sepsis risk assessment in critically ill patients.

BACKGROUND

Sepsis is one of the most common causes of hospitalization and it is characterized by a high mortality rate in spite of the great progress in diagnosis and treatment achieved in recent years. Early diagnosis of sepsis is one of the most important elements of effective treatment. The clinical symptoms are not specific and biomarkers are considered to be useful tools in sepsis diagnostics.

OBJECTIVES

The aim of our study was to evaluate the diagnostic value of sCD163 as a marker of sepsis and a comparison of it with procalcitonin and neopterin in ICU patients.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

Concentrations of PCT, sCD163 and NPT were measured in 52 serum samples collected from 30 patients of the Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Therapy of the University Hospital in Wroclaw. Venous blood was collected on the 1st and 3rd day of hospitalization. The Human CD163 Quantikine ELISA Kit was used to determine the concentrations of sCD163. Neopterin concentrations were measured by a Neopterin ELISA kit. PCT was measured at the University Center of Laboratory Diagnostics in Wroclaw using an automatic VIDAS® B.R.A.H.M.S. PCT assay.

RESULTS

Our study showed that there was a significant difference between the values obtained in the study and the reference group for PCT (p < 0.0001), sCD163 (p = 0.0001) and NPT (p = 0.0001), whereas there was no difference observed between the samples obtained on the 1st and 3rd day (p = 0.5129). The area under the ROC curve was 0.847, and was comparable to the AUC of procalcitonin (0.840), and slightly higher than the AUC of neopterin (0.763), although these differences were not significant (p = 0.2990 and p = 0.9329, respectively).

CONCLUSIONS

sCD163 and neopterin are promising parameters in the diagnosis of sepsis, and their value in the diagnosis of sepsis in critically ill patients may be comparable to procalcitonin.