Procalcitonin Use for Predicting Mortality and Morbidity of Patients Diagnosed With Sepsis Within the Intensive Care Unit

Objective Infections leading to severe sepsis and septic shock are among the top five causes requiring admission to the intensive care unit (ICU). Up to 40% of ICU admissions contain a sepsis diagnosis. Without a clear marker to diagnose and manage sepsis, procalcitonin has been extensively studied for its usefulness in the management of bacterial infections. These studies, however, have been focused toward how it can be used to help guide when antibiotics should be initiated and de-escalated. There, however, has not been a study on how this biomarker could be used to predict mortality, and morbidity and help guide a need for antibiotic escalation. Design A retrospective chart review was conducted on patients admitted to the ICU at Northeast Georgia Medical Center between January 1, 2019, to June 30, 2021. Inclusion criteria were all patients above the age of 18 admitted to the ICU with a diagnosis of sepsis and having at least two procalcitonin drawn within 10 days of each other. Exclusion criteria were any patient with a diagnosis of COVID-19. Data Analysis was conducted to identify how delta procalcitonin could identify mortality and morbidity and if there was any change in antibiotics based on the delta procalcitonin. Conclusion There was a statistically significant association between a delta positive procalcitonin and increased ICU length of stay. There was no statistical significance in expiration based on the antibiotic change in relationship to delta positive change in procalcitonin.