Abstract

Procalcitonin (PCT) is a marker of the inflammatory response to infection and not released in viral disease. The aim of the present study was to determine the level of PCT in sepsis and non-infectious systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS). We determined the level of serum PCT in 50 sepsis and 50 non-infectious SIRS cases, using semiquantitative PCT-Q kit. The frequency of PCT positivity was significantly higher in sepsis than non-infectious SIRS (P < 0.001). Using cut off value of 2 ng/ml for PCT, the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value for serum PCT in distinguishing sepsis from non-infectious SIRS were 88.0, 90.0, 89.8 and 88.2, respectively. The serum PCT is a reliable marker for distinguishing sepsis from non-infectious SIRS in association with clinical judgment and other paraclinical findings.