Usefulness of procalcitonin and C-reactive protein for predicting bacteremia in urinary tract infections in the emergency department

Abstract Introduction The aim of this study was to analyze and compare the capacity of procalcitonin (PCT), C-reactive protein (CRP), lactate and leukocytes to predict the presence of bacteremia in patients with urinary tract infections (UTIs). Methods Observational, retro-prospective analytical study of adult patients (≥15 years) diagnosed with UTI in an emergency department from August 2012 to January 2013. Results The study included 328 patients diagnosed with UTI, with a mean age of 52 ± 22 years, 74% of whom were women. Of these, 43 (13.1%) had bacteremia. For predicting bacteremia, PCT achieved the largest area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC–AUC) at 0.993 (95% CI: 0.987–1; p The mean values when comparing PCT levels in patients with UTIs with and without bacteremia were 8.08 ± 16.37 and 0.34 ± 0.37 ng/ml, respectively ( p Conclusions For patients with UTIs in the emergency department, PCT achieves considerable diagnostic performance for suspecting bacteremia, a performance greater than that of lactate, CRP and leukocytes.