Procalcitonin and C-reactive protein as prognostic biomarker of infection in traumatic fractures

Abstract

The study was conducted in AL-Fallujha teaching hospital for the period from Januaryto December 2018 on 100 patients with different fractures, (50 of them were without the presence of infections after the repair of the fracture and the other 50 were suffering from inflammation of the surgery after the repair). All information such as age, weight and sex of all patients in the study included the measurement of white blood cell level, reactive protein C level, procalcitonin level (i-chroma/immunofluorescence) and comparison of the two groups in relation to these variables as well as comparison in regard to time after the operation. In this work, total white blood cells count was significantly higher in fractured patients with infection than fractured patients without infection.In this study, CRP level was significantly higher in fractured patients with infection (10.81±1.2 mg/ml) than fractured patients without infection (8.33±0.93 mg/ml). In this study, procalcitonin (PCT) level was significantly higher in fractured patients with infection (163.3±5.9 pg/ml) than fractured patients without infection (131.7±4.8 pg/ml).The study revealed positive correlation of PCT with WBCs and CRP levels in infected fractured patientsand no correlation of PCT with WBCs and CRP in non-infected patients. The study revealed positive correlation of PCT, WBCs and CRP levels with duration after surgical operation in infectedtrauma fractures patients below 3 days and weak correlation of duration above 4 days while the study showed no correlation of PCT, WBCs and CRP levels with duration after surgical operation of non-infected trauma fractures patients. Procalcitonin and CRP were significantly related with infected patients after surgical fracture operation and could be used as markers for determination of infection after surgery.