Usefulness of procalcitonin for differentiation between activity of systemic autoimmune disease (systemic lupus erythematosus/systemic antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody-associated vasculitis) and invasive bacterial infection

Diagnostic value of procalcitonin for differentiation between bacterial infection and non-infectious inflammation in febrile patients with active adult-onset Still's disease

“…Consistent with those reported elsewhere for SLE patients3 and for AOSD patients,5 our results showed that the procalcitonin level may be used to distinguish infection from non-infectious inflammation in AOSD patients. Although previous studies have shown that a procalcitonin level of 0.5 ng/ml or greater is the appropriate cutoff value,2 3 we demonstrated that procalcitonin levels of 1.4 ng/ml or greater yielded the highest discriminative value for AOSD patients.…”

“…Although previous studies have shown that a procalcitonin level of 0.5 ng/ml or greater is the appropriate cutoff value,2 3 we demonstrated that procalcitonin levels of 1.4 ng/ml or greater yielded the highest discriminative value for AOSD patients. All six patients with infection-free AOSD who had procalcitonin levels of 0.5 ng/ml or greater presented with a high activity score of 6 or greater and had high levels of serum TNFα in our study.…”

“…Procalcitonin, a novel marker that can distinguish disease activity from infection, has been investigated in febrile patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) 2 3. Procalcitonin has proved to be a diagnostic marker of infection in critically ill patients compared with other inflammatory parameters 4.…”

“…Procalcitonin has proved to be a diagnostic marker of infection in critically ill patients compared with other inflammatory parameters 4. Serum procalcitonin is normally undetectable (<0.05 ng/ml) and procalcitonin levels of 0.5 ng/ml or greater can distinguish infection from non-infectious inflammation 3 5. Contradictory results for procalcitonin have recently been reported in AOSD because of the investigation of only small sample groups 5 6…”

Serum procalcitonin measurement for detection of intercurrent infection in febrile patients with SLE

“…Recently, the stimulation of peripheral blood mononuclear cells with lipopolysaccharide was found to increase PCT mRNA transcription 6. PCT levels in autoimmune disease were first studied by Eberhard et al , who showed that the PCT increased in vasculitic patients with infection (1.93 (1.19) ng/ml) and decreased after control of the infection (0.63 (0.62) ng/ml) 7. PCT did not increase in patients with Wegener's granulomatosis upon disease aggravation but increased with combined infection 8…”