z-logo
Premium
Is procalcitonin useful to differentiate rejection from bacterial infection in the early post‐operative period of liver transplantation in children?
Author(s) -
Mendonça Coelho Maria Cecília,
Tannuri Uenis,
Aoun Tannuri Ana Cristina,
Reingenheim Claudio,
Troster Eduardo Juan
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
pediatric transplantation
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.457
H-Index - 69
eISSN - 1399-3046
pISSN - 1397-3142
DOI - 10.1111/j.1399-3046.2008.01102.x
Subject(s) - procalcitonin , medicine , liver transplantation , gastroenterology , transplantation , sepsis
  PCT is a protein that is recognized as an acute marker of inflammation. Previous studies performed in adults who underwent liver or heart transplantation indicated that PCT plasmatic levels help to differentiate between rejection and infection. The objective of this study was to evaluate whether PCT has the same role in liver‐transplanted children. Thirty‐six patients were studied between the first and the thirtieth post‐operative days, and PCT determinations were prospectively performed according to the clinical status of the patient. In the non‐complicated patients, PCT measurements performed on the first and second post‐operative days revealed a median value of 1.60 ng/mL (mean 5.68 ± 7.05; range 0.69–18.30). After the fourth day of transplantation, PCT plasma concentrations decreased to a median value of 0.21 ng/mL (mean 0.47 ± 0.59; range 0.05–2.00; normal values are less than 0.5 ng/mL). In infected patients, PCT plasma levels demonstrated a significant increase, differing from the patients with acute liver rejection whose levels were similar to those of non‐complicated patients. In conclusion, we could demonstrate that in the early post‐operative period of liver transplantation in children, measuring PCT plasmatic levels might be a useful tool for differentiation between bacterial infection and acute liver rejection.

This content is not available in your region!

Continue researching here.

Having issues? You can contact us here