In December 2019, a new strain of coronavirus called SARS-CoV-2 first appeared in China.
The virus has spread rapidly around the world, causing millions of infections and deaths.
The COVID-19 disease can be asymptomatic or symptomatic, with the most common
symptoms being cough, fever, shortness of breath, and loss of smell and taste. A more severe
form of the disease may also occur, requiring treatment in an intensive care unit. The use of
routine laboratory tests is important to identify critically ill patients, monitor the course of
the disease, predict the outcome of the disease and evaluate the effectiveness of treatment.
As part of the master's thesis, we aimed to study the significance of procalcitonin in patients
infected with SARS-CoV-2. Procalcitonin measurements were performed using a Pathfast
and Advia Centaur XP analyzer on 112 serum blood samples from patients hospitalized in
the intensive care unit of the diagnostic and therapeutic service. In 71 % of the samples, the
concentration of PCT was above the reference range (0.1 µg / L). The mean PCT
concentration measured on the Pathfast analyzer was 2.3798 µg / L and 2.8446 µg / L on the
Advia Centaur XP analyzer. We observed more closely two patients in whom we observed
changes in blood parameters depending on the date of sampling. Values of the PCT changed
with the progression of the disease, increasing as a result of complications and decreasing
when the health condition improved. In the presence of bacterial infection, PCT and CRP
were elevated, but decreased with appropriate antibiotic treatment. Elevated IL-6 and CRP
levels indicated oxygen demands. The highest correlation is between PCT and CRP,
followed by correlation with IL-6 and, finally, the lowest correlation with D-dimer
(Spearman coefficient: 0.507, 0.437 and 0.194). We can conclude that PCT in combination
with other blood parameters is helpful in diagnosis and prediction of the disease prognosis.
POCT is especially important in intensive care units, where it allows immediate availability
of the result. We have confirmed the agreement of PCT measurements between POCT and
the classical laboratory method with the Passing-Bablok regression analysis and BlandAltman analysis. The Spearman's correlation coefficient between the methods is 0.986,
indicating an excellent correlation. The Pathfast analyzer measures on average 0.3527 µg /
L lower results, the differences between the measurements occur mainly at higher
concentrations. The methods are comparable and interchangeable.
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