Procalcitonin and enteral nutrition tolerance in critically ill patients.

BACKGROUND: Serum procalcitonin concentrations have been reported to be elevated in patients with bacterial infection. Early enteral nutrition (EN) has been shown to decrease infections in trauma patients. The purpose of this study was to characterize procalcitonin and other serum proteins during EN of trauma patients based on EN tolerance and presence of infection.

METHODS: Twenty traumatized patients received a high-protein enteral formulation within 5 days of injury. Serum for procalcitonin, C-reactive protein, and prealbumin was analyzed on days 1 and 7 of EN. The procalcitonin/prealbumin and C-reactive protein/prealbumin ratios were calculated the same days. Patients who were infected during the study were compared with those not infected, and enteral-tolerant patients were compared with enteral-intolerant patients using these measurements.

RESULTS: In the 20 trauma patients, procalcitonin (10.35 +/- 27.87 versus 1.03 +/- 1.24 ng/mL, p < .001) and procalcitonin/prealbumin ratio (1.70 +/- 4.20 versus 0.18 +/- 0.28, p < .01) decreased significantly over the 7-day period of EN. In the 12 patients who had infection, procalcitonin (16.33 +/- 35.31 versus 1.37 +/- 1.41 ng/mL, p < .004) and procal- citonin/prealbumin ratio (2.74 +/- 5.31 versus 0.26 +/- 0.33, p < .01) decreased significantly over the 7-day period of enteral nutrition. There were no significant changes in the measurements for 8 patients without infection. In the 15 patients who were enteral-tolerant, procalcitonin (12.56 +/- 32.84 versus 1.07 +/- 1.23 ng/mL, p < .004) and procalcitonin/prealbumin ratio (2.03 +/- 4.93 versus 0.20 +/- 0.29, p < .01) decreased significantly.

CONCLUSION: Procalcitonin serum concentrations decrease significantly during EN in enteral-tolerant, critically ill patients with infection.