Diagnostic and predictive values of procalcitonin in bloodstream infections for nosocomial pneumonia.

PURPOSE: We evaluated the diagnostic accuracy of PCT to distinguish between gram-negative (GN) and gram-positive (GP) bloodstream infections nosocomial pneumonia (NP) patients and compared PCT levels with the pneumonia severity index (PSI) for predicting mortality.

METHODS: Data were collected retrospectively for blood culture-positive NP patients between January 2014 and August 2016. PCT levels were compared between patients with GN versus GP infections. Outcome variables included 28- and 60-day mortality.

RESULTS: PCT level was higher in GN infections than in GP infections. PCT could differentiate between GN and GP infections with an AUC value of 0.706. At a PCT cutoff of 5.4 ng/mL, the specificity for GN infections were 80.3%. The AUCs for 28- and 60-day mortality were 0.758 and 0.759 for PSI, and 0.620 and 0.634 for PCT. Serum PCT level was less predictive of mortality in GN NP patients compared with that for GP NP patients. There was a significantly positive correlation between PCT and PSI, and the correlation in GP NP patients was better than that in GN NP patients.

CONCLUSIONS: PCT could differentiate between GN and GP bloodstream infections in patients with NP. However, PCT levels were less predictive of mortality compared with the PSI.