Ibeh Nnanna Isaiah
Background: The utility of serum procalcitonin (PCT) for differentiating pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) from bacterial acquired pneumonia (AP) in Benin Metropolis (Nigeria), a country with an intermediate TB burden.
Aim: To determine the bacterial acquired Pnuemonia from Mycobacterium tuberculosis associated pneumonia with the aid of procalcitonin levels
Methods: We conducted a prospective study, enrolling 170 participants with suspected AP in a community-based referral hospital. A clinical assessment was performed before treatment, serum and PCT were measured. The test results were compared to the final diagnoses.
Results: Of the 170 patients, 98 had bacterial acquired pneumonia and 52 had pulmonary TB. The median PCT level was 0.528 ng/mL (range, 0.01 to 27.75) with bacterial acquired pneumonia and 0.042 ng/mL (range, 0.01 to 0.87) with pulmonary TB (p<0.001). No difference was detected in the discriminative values of PCT (p=0.733).
Conclusions: The concentrations of PCT differed significantly in patients with pulmonary TB and bacterial acquired Pneumonia. The high sensitivity and negative predictive value for differentiating pulmonary TB from bacterial acquired pneumonia suggest a supplementary role of PCT in the diagnostic exclusion of pulmonary TB from bacterial AP in areas with an intermediate prevalence of pulmonary TB.
PDFShare this article
Medical Microbiology & Diagnosis received 14 citations as per Google Scholar report
