Procalcitonin as a diagnostic and prognostic marker for sepsis caused by intestinal infection: a case report.

BACKGROUND

In recent years, procalcitonin has emerged as a promising marker for bacterial infection, with the high sensitivity and specificity.

CASE PRESENTATION: This report presents a 76-year-old woman with fever, vomiting and diarrhea. The clinical and laboratory examination revealed that the patient had a suspected serious intestinal infection and sepsis. The extremely high level of procalcitonin and positive blood culture result confirmed our diagnosis.

CONCLUSIONS

Early identification of severe sepsis sometimes is very difficult. Procalcitonin is a useful tool in the early diagnosis of sepsis, differentiating from other inflammatory syndrome. The high PCT level (10 ng/ml) in this case could suggest serious bacterial infection and sepsis, and also predicts mortality and worse outcome.