• Sakshi Yadav, Roshan Mathew, Ankit Kumar Sahu, Nayer Jamshed, Ritin Mohindra, Praveen Aggarwal, Atul Batra, Dipanjan Halder, and R L Brunda.
• Department of Emergency Medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India.
• J Emerg Med. 2021 May 1; 60 (5): 641-647.

BackgroundVarious risk-stratification scores have been developed to identify low-risk febrile neutropenia (FN). The Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer (MASCC) score is a commonly used validated scoring system, although its performance varies due to its subjectivity. Biomarkers like procalcitonin (PCT) are being used in patients with FN to detect bacteremia and additional complications.ObjectiveOur objective was to compare the performance of MASCC score with PCT in predicting adverse outcomes in patients with FN.MethodsThis was a prospective observational study that included chemotherapy-induced FN in hematologic or solid malignancy. The MASCC score, PCT levels, and blood cultures were taken at the first point of contact, and patient treatment was managed according to routine institutional protocol. The primary outcome was mortality at 30 days.ResultsA total of 100 patients were recruited, of which 92 had hematologic malignancy and 8 had solid malignancy. Forty-six patients were classified as low risk by MASCC score (≥21). The PCT threshold, 1.42 ng/mL, was taken as a cutoff value, with area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) of 0.664 (95% confidence interval [CI] -0.55 to 0.77) for predicting mortality. AUROC for MASCC was 0.586 (95% CI 0.462 to 0.711).ConclusionsPCT is a useful marker with better prognostic efficacy than MASCC score in patients with FN and can be used as an adjunct to the score in risk-stratifying patients with FN.Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

19 keywords...

hide…