More people die each year from sepsis than cancers of the breast and prostate, and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) / acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) combined. An initiative by the biochemistry laboratory at Portsmouth’s Queen Alexandra Hospital is designed to explore ways of reducing the impact of such life-threatening infections.
Procalcitonin (PCT), a prohormone of calcitonin, is an inflammatory marker with a high specificity for bacterial infection. It has been observed as a useful adjunct in determining whether or not a patient has sepsis. With regard to antimicrobial stewardship, a negative procalcitonin result is a point of reassurance to support the cessation of antibiotic treatment, reducing unnecessary associated costs and side-effects.
The Portsmouth laboratory is collaborating with Beckman Coulter Diagnostics on a study that measures the effectiveness of the company’s new CE-marked Access PCT assay. The laboratory’s long-term objective is to spearhead new protocols for speeding up appropriate treatment of sepsis with antibiotics within the hospital, placing particular emphasis on patient safety.