Narender Katakam, Sridevi Durgaraju
BACKGROUND Sepsis is a life-threatening condition that arises when the body's response to infection causes injury to its own tissues and organs. Sepsis is caused by an immune response triggered by an infection. Most commonly, the infection is bacterial, but it may also be from fungi, viruses, or parasites. This study evaluates the semi-quantitative pro-calcitonin kit for evaluating sepsis severity and determines the mortality in affected patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS This study was a prospective study which was conducted in the Department of General Medicine, Chalmeda Anand Rao Institute of Medical Sciences, Karimnagar, Telangana conducted from July 2015 to September 2016. RESULTS The DIC, SOFA and APACHE II scores were found to be significant i.e. have P<0.01 between group A and C and between group B and C. There was a significantly higher procalcitonin concentrations in patients with severe sepsis and septic shock than in those patients with less severe disease. It was observed that there was an upward trend in pro-calcitonin concentrations in patients with septic shock. In the three group, a significant (P< 0.01) difference was observed with regard to numbers of patients and rates of severe sepsis, septic shock, DIC, and mortality. CONCLUSION For detecting the disease severity early in sepsis patients, semi-quantitative pro-calcitonin concentration testing can be used as a useful tool. It may also predict the mortality in septic patients at an early stage.
