EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF INFLAMMATION

Vol. 12, no. 2,305-313 (2014)

PROCALCITONIN AS A BIOMARKER OF THE EARLY STAGE OF BACTERIAL INFECTIONS IN HIV/AIDS PATIENTS T. MIKULA, M. SUCHACZ, W. STANCZAK, 1. KOZLOWSKA and A. WIERCINSKA-DRAPALO

Department ofHepatology and Acquired Immunodeficiencies, Warsaw Medical University, Warsaw, Poland Received December 4,2013 -Accepted May 21,2014 We observed that low concentrations of procalcitonin (PCT) in the early stages of bacterial infection among HIV/AIDS patients are not always associated with a good prognosis. Many of our patients developed sepsis despite a PCT level of

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Fig. 1. ROC curve for HIVpatients and controls.

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LEGEND PCT CRP WBC Reference Line

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Fig. 2. ROC curve jar AIDS patients and controls.

disease generated significantly lower serum CRP concentrations during bacteraemia. They concluded that, in the diagnosis and monitoring of bacterial sepsis in patients with liver disease, serum CRP concentrations should be interpreted with caution (15). In our study, using the new ranges, we observed a relatively high PCT sensitivity of aimost 70% in the HIV patients. In both groups, CRP sensitivity is higher than that of PCT. PCT displayed a higher sensitivity than CRP and is shown to be a better marker for confirming diagnosis. As result of our trial, we can conclude that CRP is more effective for screening the presence of bacterial infection in HIVand AIDS-infected individuals. Leonhardt et al. demonstrated a statistical significant difference, at p