Clinical biochemistry
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Determine the relation of xanthine oxidase (XO) activity and the outcome of septic patients and its relation to oxidative damage and clinical parameters of sepsis severity. ⋯ XO activity was increased in non-survivors patients and the variations in XO activity could be used for outcome prediction.
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Clinical biochemistry · Oct 2008
Procalcitonin for the diagnosis of early-onset neonatal sepsis: a multilevel probabilistic approach.
To compare the accuracy of procalcitonin (PCT) in early-onset neonatal sepsis (EOS) using standard cut-off values and a multilevel probabilistic approach. ⋯ The multilevel probabilistic approach was more effective in assessing the diagnostic power of PCT in EOS, showing that a wide range of intermediate PCT values was not able to discriminate between presence and absence of infection.
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Clinical biochemistry · Oct 2008
Transthyretin as a marker to predict outcome in critically ill patients.
A determination of serum Transthyretin (TTR, Prealbumin) level is an objective method of assessing protein catabolic loss of severely ill patients and numerous studies have shown that TTR levels correlate with patient outcomes of non-critically ill patients. We evaluated whether TTR level correlates with the prevalence of PEM in the ICU and evaluated serum TTR level as an indicator of the effectiveness of nutrition support and the prognosis in critically ill patients. ⋯ TTR identified patients at highest risk for metabolic losses associated with stress hypermetabolism as serum TTR levels did not respond early to nutrition support because of the delayed return to anabolic status. It is particularly helpful in removing interpretation bias, and it is an excellent measure of the systemic inflammatory response concurrent with a preexisting state of chronic inanition.