Procalcitonin in liver transplant patients – yet another stone turned

doi:10.1186/cc6221

Critical Care

Volume 12
Issue 1

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Commentary

Procalcitonin in liver transplant patients – yet another stone turned

Jens-Ulrik Jensen¹^,2 and Jens D Lundgren²^,3

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

²From 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

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

author email corresponding author email

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


Published:	22 January 2008

See related research by Zazula et al., http://ccforum.com/content/11/6/R131

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.