Background: Diagnosing sepsis is difficult in burn patients because of the inflammatory mediators that alter postburn metabolic profile. Here, we compare a new marker presepsin with procalcitonin (PCT), c-reactive protein (CRP) and white blood cell (WBC) in diagnosis and follow up of sepsis in burn patients.
Methods: Patients admitted to burn center of our institute were prospectively investigated. Presepsin, PCT, CRP and WBC levels were measured at admission and every 6h for first day and daily thereafter. At all timing samples, patients were classified as sepsis or non-sepsis according to the current American Burn Association Consensus Criteria (ABA) 2007.
Result: 37 adult patients were evaluated. A total data of 611 time points were supplied. Sepsis time points differ significantly from non-sepsis in presepsin (p < 0.0001), PCT (p = 0.0012) and CRP (p < 0.0001) levels. Non-surviving patient results differ significantly from survivors in presepsin (p < 0.0001), PCT (p = 0.0210) and CRP (p = 0.0008). AUC-ROC % values for diagnosing sepsis were 83.4% for presepsin, 84.7% for PCT, 81.9% for CRP and 50.8% for WBC. Sepsis patients had significantly different presepsin, CRP and WBC but not PCT levels on their first day of sepsis compared to previous days.
Conclusion: Plasma presepsin levels have comparable performance in burn sepsis.
Keywords: Burn sepsis; C-reactive protein; Diagnosis; Presepsin; Procalcitonin.
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