Key result
Calprotectin was superior to procalcitonin as a sepsis marker (AUC 0.79 vs 0.49) and demonstrated higher predictive ability for 30-day mortality in intensive care unit patients.
Why the study?
Sepsis is the most frequent cause of death in the ICU, where rapid and correct diagnosis is crucial, motivating a comparison of calprotectin with procalcitonin.
Does calprotectin perform better than procalcitonin as a sepsis marker and predictor of 30-day mortality in ICU patients?
Observational (n=271)
No
Does calprotectin perform better than procalcitonin as a sepsis marker and predictor of 30-day mortality in ICU patients?
Absolute Event Rate: 0.79% vs 0.49%
Calprotectin may be a superior biomarker compared to procalcitonin for diagnosing sepsis and predicting 30-day mortality in ICU patients.
Calprotectin may outperform procalcitonin for sepsis diagnosis and mortality prediction in ICU; hypothesis-generating and requires prospective validation.
Sepsis is the most frequent cause of death in the intensive care unit (ICU). A rapid and correct diagnosis and initiation of therapy is crucial for improving patient outcomes. The aim of this study was to compare the performance of calprotectin with the more widely used sepsis biomarker procalcitonin (PCT) in ICU patients. The performance of calprotectin and PCT as sepsis and prognostic markers for 30-d mortality was compared in a prospective, observational study in an eight-bed ICU. We investigated concentrations of the biomarkers in plasma collected at admission from all ICU patients admitted during a year (2012–2013, n = 271) together with simplified acute physiology 3 scores (SAPS3) and sequential organ failure assessment (SOFA) scores. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis showed a higher area under the curve (AUC) value for calprotectin (0.79) than for PCT (0.49) when used as a sepsis marker. The calprotectin concentrations at admission were higher in non-survivors than in survivors at day 30. In our study, calprotectin was superior to PCT for distinguishing between ICU patients with sepsis and non-sepsis patients. Calprotectin also had higher predictive ability regarding 30-d mortality.
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Larsson et al. (2019) conducted an observational in Sepsis (n=271). Calprotectin vs. Procalcitonin (PCT) was evaluated on Sepsis marker performance (Area Under the Curve). Calprotectin was superior to procalcitonin as a sepsis marker (AUC 0.79 vs 0.49) and demonstrated higher predictive ability for 30-day mortality in intensive care unit patients.
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