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(Circulation. 2004;109:e9035.)
© 2004 American Heart Association, Inc.

Cardiovascular News

Ruth SoRelle, MPH

Circulation Newswriter

An extract of the first 250 words of the full text is provided, because this article has no abstract.

Procalcitonin and Infective Endocarditis

Procalcitonin, known as a marker of bacterial infection in the heart muscle, is also useful in determining the presence of infective endocarditis, said Swiss researchers in a report in this week’s issue of the journal Circulation ( Circulation. 2004;109:1707–1710[Abstract/Free Full Text]).

Saying that ineffective resources are currently used in the diagnosis of infective endocarditis, Christian Mueller, MD, and his colleagues of the University Hospital in Basel, Switzerland, noted that the changing profile of infective endocarditis makes it difficult to diagnose.

"Our data suggest that the use of procalcitonin values may help to improve the resource utilization of diagnostic imaging. In conclusion, procalcitonin may be a valuable additional diagnostic marker in patients with suspected IE [infective endocarditis]," the authors wrote.

The researchers prospectively evaluated 67 consecutive patients who were admitted to the hospital with the suspicion of infective endocarditis or whose probable diagnosis became evident during hospitalization. Infective endocarditis was confirmed in 21 of the patients.

Levels of procalcitonin were significantly higher in the patients who had infective endocarditis than in those for whom other diagnoses were eventually confirmed. The infective endocarditis patients had average procalcitonin levels of 6.56 ng/mL, whereas those with other heart problems had procalcitonin levels of, on average, 0.44 ng/mL. Using multiple logistic regression, the researchers determined that procalcitonin was the only significant independent predictor of infective endocarditis when patients were admitted to the hospital.

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