Abstract
Background: Presepsin is currently a promising biomarker for the early diagnosis and prognosis of acute bacterial infection. Acute cholangitis is caused by bacterial infection and has high morbidity and mortality. The study engaged to assess the grading and prognostic value of presepsin in patients with acute cholangitis. Methods: This study enrolled patients with acute cholangitis in the emergency department from May 1, 2019 to December 20, 2020. The patients were evaluated for severity by the 2018 Tokyo Guidelines for Acute Cholangitis. Patients’ baseline features and routine clinical data were collected. On admission, presepsin, procalcitonin (PCT) and systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) and sequential organ failure assessment (SOFA) scores were determined; and blood cultures were performed. IBM SPSS software (version 22.0) was used. The comparation of values was performed by Pearson chi-square test or Fisher's exact test or Mann-Whitney U test. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC), multivariate logistic regression, and correlation analysis were used to analyze this importance of determining the presepsin levels on admission for acute cholangitis. Results: In total, 330 patients, including 109, 101, and 120 patients classified as having mild, moderate, and severe cholangitis, respectively, were examined. The AUCs of presepsin were 0.713 in predicting severe acute cholangitis, better than those of white blood cell (WBC 0.411), C-reactive protein (CRP 0.615), PCT 0.608, and total bilirubin (T-Bil 0.441) (P<0.05). The AUC of presepsin in predicting 28-day mortality was higher than that of WBC, CRP, PCT, and T-Bil. The presepsin level in the positive blood culture group was higher than that in the negative blood culture group (P=0.000). The P values for correlations of presepsin with SIRS and SOFA scores were 0.002 and 0.000, respectively. Conclusions: Presepsin levels on admission were correlated with SIRS and SOFA scores. Presepsin may predict positive blood culture and 28-day mortality in patients with acute cholangitis, and it is superior to WBC, CRP, PCT, and T-Bil in the risk stratification and prognostic assessment of severe cholangitis. Trial registration: Ethical code of this study is 2018-P2-063-01 and acquired on May, 22, 2018.
Brown pigment gallstones: The role of bacterial hydrolases and another missed opportunity
