Abstract
Objectives: To evaluate the usefulness of procalcitonin (PCT) in differential diagnosis for bacteremia or blood culture contamination and predicting either Gram-positive or Gram-negative bacteremia. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed a total of 132 cases in which PCT and C-reactive protein (CRP) were examined and blood cultures were found to be positive from November 2012 to June 2013. Results: The PCT concentrations were significantly higher in bacteremia cases (n=102) than in contamination cases (n=30) (median: 2.8 ng/ml vs. 0.3 ng/ml, P<0.001). The receiver operating characteristics-areas under the curve (ROC-AUCs) of PCT and CRP for discriminating bacteremia from contamination were 0.76 and 0.64, respectively. PCT concentrations of Gram-positive cases (n=48) were not significantly different from those of Gram-negative cases (n=54) (median: 2.1 ng/ml vs. 3.7 ng/ml, P=0.123). Conclusions: Compared with CRP, PCT could be useful in the differential diagnosis between bacteremia and contamination. However, we may not estimate either Gram-positive or Gram-negative bacteremia using CRP and PCT.
