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Use of procalcitonin as a biomarker for sepsis in pediatric burns

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Abstract

Infection and sepsis continue to be the leading cause of morbidity and death in burn injuries. Diagnosing sepsis in burns is challenging as signs and symptoms of sepsis are not specific and overlap with those related to the burn injury. While the use of procalcitonin (PCT) as a biomarker is recommended for diagnosing sepsis in burns, evidence for children with burns is scarce. In this study, we aimed to investigate the role of PCT in distinguishing sepsis in pediatric burns. A prospective observational study was conducted in a single pediatric burn unit. Children hospitalized with burns ≤ 30% of total body surface area were included while patients with chemical burn, inhalation injury, or concomitant chronic diseases were excluded. Patients were classified into three groups for sepsis, systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS), or controls using the American Burn Association (ABA) criteria. The predictive role of C-reactive protein (CRP) and PCT was investigated for distinguishing sepsis. Seventy-two patients were included in the study. The median total body surface area (TBSA) size was 12% (2.0–28.5%), and the median abbreviated burn severity index (ABSI) score was 3 (2–7). The median length of burn unit stay was 9.5 days (1–59 days). Sepsis was diagnosed in 11 patients (15.2%), and SIRS was present in 23 patients (40.0%), whereas 38 patients (52.8%) had neither SIRS nor sepsis (control group). Receiver operating characteristic analysis revealed that CRP and PCT levels distinguished sepsis patients from non-sepsis patients while PCT had a higher positive predictive value (50.0% vs. 45.0%). Optimal cutoff values of CRP and PCT for distinguishing sepsis were 66.75 mg/L and 0.95 ng/mL.

Conclusions: PCT levels could distinguish sepsis in children with burn injuries, performing better than CRP levels. Confirmatory studies are needed to evaluate the development of sepsis and the role of PCT in diagnosing sepsis in pediatric burn patients.

What is Known:

• Even though there are excellent criteria for the diagnosis of infection and sepsis in children and several clinical parameters and biomarkers are being studied, it's difficult to diagnose burn wound sepsis in children.

What is New:

• Data from this study showed that procalcitonin levels performed better than CRP levels as a biomarker for distinguishing sepsis from systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) in children with burn injuries.

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Availability of data and material

The data was generated at a central, large-scale facility and available upon request.

Code availability

Not applicable.

Abbreviations

ABA:

American Burn Association

ABSI:

Abbreviated burn severity index

ACCP/SCCM:

American College of Chest Physicians/Society of Critical Care Medicine

ANC:

Absolute neutrophil count

CRP:

C-reactive protein

PCT:

Procalcitonin

ROC:

Receiver operating characteristic

SD:

Standard deviation

SIRS:

Systemic inflammatory response syndrome

TBSA:

Total body surface area

WBC:

White blood cell count

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pediatric Metabolism, Ankara City Hospital, Ankara, 06800, Turkey

    Ummuhan Oncul

  2. Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, University of Health Sciences, Sisli Etfal Training and Research Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey

    Nazan Dalgıç

  3. Division of Pediatric Surgery, University of Health Sciences, Sisli Etfal Training and Research Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey

    Mesut Demir & Çetin Ali Karadağ

  4. Department of Pediatrics, Vadistanbul Liv Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey

    Pınar Karadeniz

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  1. Ummuhan Oncul
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  2. Nazan Dalgıç
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  4. Pınar Karadeniz
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  5. Çetin Ali Karadağ
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Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: UO and ND. Performed the experiments: CAK and MD. Analyzed the data: UO and PK. Wrote the paper: UO. Reviewed the paper: ND.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ummuhan Oncul.

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Ethics approval

The study protocol was approved by the Sisli Etfal Training and Research Hospital Clinical Research Ethical Committee (approval number: 449/ 03032015).

Consent to participate

Written informed consent was obtained from the parents of all study participants.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Communicated by Nicole Ritz.

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Oncul, U., Dalgıç, N., Demir, M. et al. Use of procalcitonin as a biomarker for sepsis in pediatric burns. Eur J Pediatr 182, 1561–1567 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00431-023-04831-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00431-023-04831-6

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