Observational studyEuropean journal of pediatrics2023
Use of procalcitonin as a biomarker for sepsis in pediatric burns.
Observational study in European journal of pediatrics, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
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Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed, 9 citations in OpenAlex.
- Use of procalcitonin in therapeutic decisions in the pediatric intensive care unit.Annals of intensive care · 2025Review
- Machine Learning-Based Mortality Risk Prediction Model in Patients with Sepsis.Journal of inflammation research · 2025Article
- Bidirectional Regulatory Roles in the Immune Modulation, Organ Dysfunction, and Therapy of Sepsis.International journal of nanomedicine · 2025Review
- Serum procalcitonin and C-reactive protein as indices of early sepsis and mortality in North Indian pediatric burn injuries: a prospective evaluation and literature review.Acute and critical care · 2024Article
- Development of an All-Marine 3D Printed Bioactive Hydrogel Dressing for Treatment of Hard-to-Heal Wounds.Polymers · 2023Article
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Infection and sepsis continue to be the leading cause of morbidity and death in burn injuries. Diagnosing sepsis in burns is challenging as signs and symptoms of sepsis are not specific and overlap with those related to the burn injury. While the use of procalcitonin (PCT) as a biomarker is recommended for diagnosing sepsis in burns, evidence for children with burns is scarce. In this study, we aimed to investigate the role of PCT in distinguishing sepsis in pediatric burns. A prospective observational study was conducted in a single pediatric burn unit. Children hospitalized with burns ≤ 30% of total body surface area were included while patients with chemical burn, inhalation injury, or concomitant chronic diseases were excluded. Patients were classified into three groups for sepsis, systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS), or controls using the American Burn Association (ABA) criteria. The predictive role of C-reactive protein (CRP) and PCT was investigated for distinguishing sepsis. Seventy-two patients were included in the study. The median total body surface area (TBSA) size was 12% (2.0-28.5%), and the median abbreviated burn severity index (ABSI) score was 3 (2-7). The median length of burn unit stay was 9.5 days (1-59 days). Sepsis was diagnosed in 11 patients (15.2%), and SIRS was present in 23 patients (40.0%), whereas 38 patients (52.8%) had neither SIRS nor sepsis (control group). Receiver operating characteristic analysis revealed that CRP and PCT levels distinguished sepsis patients from non-sepsis patients while PCT had a higher positive predictive value (50.0% vs. 45.0%). Optimal cutoff values of CRP and PCT for distinguishing sepsis were 66.75 mg/L and 0.95 ng/mL.
conclusionsPCT levels could distinguish sepsis in children with burn injuries, performing better than CRP levels. Confirmatory studies are needed to evaluate the development of sepsis and the role of PCT in diagnosing sepsis in pediatric burn patients. WHAT IS KNOWN: • Even though there are excellent criteria for the diagnosis of infection and sepsis in children and several clinical parameters and biomarkers are being studied, it's difficult to diagnose burn wound sepsis in children. WHAT IS NEW: • Data from this study showed that procalcitonin levels performed better than CRP levels as a biomarker for distinguishing sepsis from systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) in children with burn injuries.
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