SynthesisMedicine2017
Performance of procalcitonin in diagnosing parapneumonic pleural effusions: A clinical study and meta-analysis.
Synthesis in Medicine, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 24 citations in OpenAlex.
- Nicotinamide phosphoribosyltransferase as a biomarker for the diagnosis of infectious pleural effusions.Scientific reports · 2021Trial
- A Study Investigating Markers in PLeural Effusion (SIMPLE): a prospective and double-blind diagnostic study.BMJ open · 2019Trial
- Diagnosis of Parapneumonia Pleural Effusion with Serum and Pleural Fluid Cell-Free DNA.BioMed research international · 2019Trial
- Effectiveness of free vastus lateralis musculocutaneous flap transplantation plus ultrasound-mediated transdermal Qianjin Weijing decoction for chronic empyema: a prospective, preference-based observational study.Frontiers in medicine · 2026Article
- Evaluation of biomarkers sTREM-1, procalcitonin and C reactive protein in the diagnosis of pleural infection.BMJ open respiratory research · 2025Article
- Diagnostic Utility of Pleural C-Reactive Protein and Procalcitonin for Parapneumonic Pleural Effusion: A Head-to-Head Comparison Study.Infection and drug resistance · 2025Article
- Infection versus disease activity in systemic lupus erythematosus patients with fever.BMC rheumatology · 2024Article
- Procalcitonin: A promising tool or just another overhyped test?International journal of medical sciences · 2020Review
- Procalcitonin in respiratory disease: use as a biomarker for diagnosis and guiding antibiotic therapy.Breathe (Sheffield, England) · 2019Review
- Clinical study of serum procalcitonin level in patients with myocardial infarction complicated by pulmonary infection.Experimental and therapeutic medicine · 2018Article
- Understanding diagnostic tests. Part 1.Jornal brasileiro de pneumologia : publicacao oficial da Sociedade Brasileira de Pneumologia e TisilogiaArticle
- Understanding diagnostic tests. Part 2.Jornal brasileiro de pneumologia : publicacao oficial da Sociedade Brasileira de Pneumologia e TisilogiaArticle
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundParapneumonic pleural effusion (PPE) is a common complication of pneumonia. The accurate diagnosis of PPE remains a challenge. Recent studies suggest that procalcitonin (PCT) emerges as a potential biomarker for PPE. Our study aimed to determine the diagnostic value of PCT for PPE by a clinical study and summarize the overall diagnostic performance of PCT through a meta-analysis.
methodsDemographic and clinical data of the patients with PPE and controls were collected in our clinical study. The diagnostic performances of serum PCT (s-PCT) were analyzed via receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis, using area under the curve (AUC) as a measure of accuracy. Literature databases were systematically searched for the studies examining the accuracy of PCT for diagnosing PPE. Data on sensitivity, specificity, positive/negative likelihood ratio (PLR/NLR), and diagnostic odds ratio (DOR) were pooled. Summary ROC curves and AUC were used to evaluate overall test performance.
resultsIn our clinical study, 47 patients with PPE and 101 controls were included. The s-PCT levels were significantly increased in the setting of PPE (5.44 ± 9.82 ng/mL) compared with malignant PE (0.15 ± 0.19 ng/mL), tuberculous PE (0.18 ± 0.16 ng/mL), and transudates (0.09 ± 0.03 ng/mL) (P < .001). Using a cutoff value of 0.195 ng/mL, the sensitivity and specificity of s-PCT in diagnosing PPE were 0.83 and 0.80, respectively, and AUC was 0.89. In addition, 11 studies were included in our meta-analysis. Summary performance estimates for s-PCT in diagnosing PPE were as follows: sensitivity, 0.78 (95% CI: 0.71-0.84); specificity, 0.74 (95% CI: 0.69-0.78); PLR, 3.46 (95% CI: 2.09-5.74); NLR, 0.27 (95% CI: 0.14-0.54); DOR, 12.37 (95% CI: 4.34-41.17); and AUC, 0.84. The corresponding estimates for p-PCT were as follows: sensitivity, 0.62 (95% CI: 0.57-0.67); specificity, 0.71 (95% CI: 0.68-0.75); PLR 2.31 (95% CI: 1.81-2.95); NLR, 0.47 (95% CI: 0.35-0.63); DOR, 5.48 (95% CI: 3.07-9.77); and AUC, 0.80.
conclusionBoth s-PCT and p-PCT might have modest performance in diagnosing PPE. However, more studies on a large scale should be performed to confirm our findings.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.