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Procalcitonin in liver transplant patients – yet another stone turned

Jens-Ulrik Jensen1,2* and Jens D Lundgren3,2

Author Affiliations

1 From the Procalcitonin And Survival Study (PASS), Department of Clinical Microbiology 445, Copenhagen University Hospital, Kettegaard Allé 30, DK-2650 Hvidovre, Denmark

2 From the Procalcitonin And Survival Study (PASS), Copenhagen HIV Programme, University of Copenhagen, Faculty of Health Sciences, The Panum Institute/Building 21.1, Blegdamsvej 3B, DK-2200, Copenhagen N, Denmark

3 From the Procalcitonin And Survival Study (PASS), Centre for Viral Diseases/KMA, Rigshospitalet, Blegdamsvej 9, DK-2100 Copenhagen Ø, Denmark

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Critical Care 2008, 12:108 doi:10.1186/cc6221

Published: 22 January 2008

Abstract

Liver transplantation has been reported to initiate increases in procalcitonin levels, in the absence of bacterial infection. The results of a study investigating the course of procalcitonin levels over several days after liver transplantation in noninfected patients were recently reported in Critical Care. This study shows that procalcitonin levels increase only transiently, immediately after surgery, and thereafter they rapidly decrease. This new information gives us hope that procalcitonin can be used as a marker of bacterial infection in these patients. Further studies of patients undergoing liver transplantation with and without bacterial infection are needed.