Procalcitonin Measurement in Pleural Fluid to Predict Infectious Complications of the Chest Post Lung Resection

Procalcitonin (PCT) is variably used in clinical practice to identify infectious processes. This study investigated whether PCT level in pleural fluids could predict the infectious complications in the chests of patients undergoing lobectomy.

Thirty-four patients undergoing lobectomy for lung cancer were enrolled. PCT levels were measured in serum (S-PCT) and pleural effusion (PF-PCT) on consecutive postoperative days (PODs). The patients were grouped according to the development of chest infectious complications (atelectasis/pneumonia, postoperative infected pleural effusion/empyema/infected space, prolonged air leak >5 days with evidence of infection, lung torsion, and lung infarction). Multivariate analysis was performed to identify if S-PCT or PF-PCT and on which PODs were predictive of chest infectious complications. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was further performed to identify cutoff values.

Eleven patients experienced infectious complications within a median of 4 days (range 3-5 days) postoperatively. S-PCT and PF-PCT in non-complicated patients did not significantly increase postoperatively and followed a decreasing course. Only PF-PCT was significantly increased in complicated patients from POD1; the level peaked on POD4, as did that of S-PCT. PF-PCT on POD2 and 3 and S-PCT on POD3 independently predicted chest infectious complications. ROC analysis showed that PF-PCT > 0.88 ng/dL on POD2 was the most sensitive predictor of such complications (area under the ROC curve [AUC]: 0.979, sensitivity 85%/specificity 91%, p < .001) compared to S-PCT POD3 and PF-PCT POD3.

Compared to PCT concentrations in serum, those in pleural fluids were more sensitive and predicted chest infectious complications earlier in patients undergoing lobectomy.