• Dimple Anand, Sabari Das, Seema Bhargava, Lalit Mohan Srivastava, Ashish Garg, Niraj Tyagi, Saurabh Taneja, and Sumit Ray.
• Department of Biochemistry, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, New Delhi, 110060, India.
• J Crit Care. 2015 Feb 1;30(1):218.e7-12.

PurposeDifferentiation between culture-negative sepsis and noninfectious systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) remains a diagnostic challenge for clinicians, both conditions having similar clinical presentations. Therefore, a swift accurate diagnostic tool, which helps differentiate these 2 conditions would immensely aid appropriate therapeutic continuum. This prospective study was conducted to evaluate the potential diagnostic role of biomarkers, procalcitonin (PCT) and interleukin 6 (IL-6), in culture-negative sepsis patients.MethodsEnrolled patients (208) included 46 noninfectious SIRS, 90 culture-negative sepsis, and 72 culture-positive sepsis. Culture, PCT, and IL-6 estimations were performed on day 1 of intensive care unit admission.ResultsProcalcitonin and IL-6 levels were significantly higher (P < .001) in both culture-negative and culture-positive groups as compared with SIRS group. Procalcitonin was a better predictor of sepsis in both culture-negative (area under curves 0.892 vs 0.636) and culture-positive (area under curves 0.959 vs 0.784) groups as compared with IL-6. In culture-negative group, the best cutoff point for PCT was at 1.43 ng/mL (92% sensitivity; 83% negative predictive value), best cutoff point for IL-6 was at 219.85 pg/mL (47% sensitivity and 42% negative predictive value).ConclusionsProcalcitonin can accurately differentiate culture-negative sepsis from noninfectious SIRS and thereby contribute to early diagnosis and effective management of these conditions.Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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