Objective: To establish the utility of procalcitonin (PCT) and other clinical and analytical parameters as markers of acute and permanent renal damage in children after a first febrile urinary tract infection (UTI).
Methods: Retrospective multicentre study. Statistical study: descriptive, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves and multiple logistic regression.
Results: 219 patients, aged between 1 week and 14 years (68% under 1 year). The mean PCT values were significantly higher in patients with acute pyelonephritis with respect to normal acute DMSA (4.8 vs 1.44; p=0.0001), without achieving that signification for late affected DMSA (6.5 vs 5.05; p=0.6). The area under the ROC curve for PCT was 0.64 (CI 95% 0.55-0.72) for acute renal damage, and 0.62 (CI 95% 0.44-0.80) for permanent damage, with optimum statistical cut-off values of 0.85 and 1.17ng/ml. Multivariate analysis for acute renal damage only found correlation with PCT (Odds Ratio [OR] 1.2 (CI 95% 1.06-1.4, p=0.005), and hours of fever (OR for less than 6 hours of fever 0.4 (CI 95% 0.2-1.02, p=0.05). In patients with renal scarring, PCT showed an OR 1.0 (CI 95% 0.9-1.1, p=0.6).
Conclusions: PCT and the duration of fever were the only parameters statistically associated with early renal damage. PCT and renal scarring did not reach statistical significance.