Measurement of serum procalcitonin level in elderly heart failure patients with pulmonary infection and its clinical significance
Abstract：Objective To study the measurement of serum procalcitonin (PCT ) level in elderly heart failure patients with pulmonary infection and its clinical significance .Methods One hundred and thirty-seven heart failure patients were randomly divided into pulmonary infection group (n=66) and non-pulmonary infection group (n= 71) .Their ambulatory serum PCT level was moni-tored with an automatic flurescent immunoassay system and pulmonary infection was analyzed . Results The pulmonary infection rate was 48 .2% in elderly heart failure patients .The serum PCT level (≥0 .5μg/L)was significantly higher in pulmonary infection group than in non-pulmo-nary infection group (43 .9% vs 12 .7% ,P<0 .01) .The sensitivity ,specificity ,positive and nega-tive predictive values of PCT ≥0 .5 μg/L were 95 .45% ,81 .69% ,82 .89% and 95 .01% ,respec-tively ,for pulmonary infection .The serum PCT level was <0 .5 μg/L in patients with their serum PCT level ≥0 .5 μg/L 3 -14 days after treatment with antibiotics .Conclusion Measurement of serum PCT level contributes to the early diagnosis of pulmonary infection and its treatment with antibiotics in elderly heart failure patients .
Keywords：heart failurepneumoniaprocalcitoninearly diagnosisanti-bacterial agents
Publication Date：2014-01-01
Online Publishing Date：2025-08-15(First online date of this platform, not the publication date of the document)
Pages：3( 1035-1037 )