Related Experiment Video
Updated: Sep 21, 2025
Novel Diagnostics in Revision Arthroplasty: Implant Sonication and Multiplex Polymerase Chain Reaction
Published on: December 3, 2017
Usage of procalcitonin and sCD14-ST as diagnostic markers for postoperative spinal infection
Xi Zhu1, Kaige Li2, Jianping Zheng1
1Orthopedics, General Hospital of Ningxia Medical University, Yinchuan, China.
Objective:
Identifying biomarkers for early diagnosis of postoperative spinal infection is essential to avoid complications after spine surgery. The presented study evaluated serum levels of procalcitonin (PCT), C-reactive protein (CRP), and soluble CD14 subtype (sCD14-ST) in patients who underwent spinal surgery to assess the diagnosis values of PCT and sCD14-ST.
Methods:
Serum levels of PCT, CRP, and sCD14-ST were measured in 490 (289 male/201 female) patients who underwent spinal surgery (SS) before and 1 day after surgery. PCT and sCD14-ST levels of patients diagnosed with postoperative infection (PI) and patients diagnosed with postoperative non-infection (PN) were compared.
Results:
Serum levels of PCT, CRP, and sCD14-ST were significantly increased after surgery (F = 58.393, P = 0.000). In patients diagnosed as having a PI, serum levels of PCT and sCD14-ST were positively correlated with each other (r = 0.90, P < 0.01) and with operation duration (r = 0.92, 0.88, P < 0.01). Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) models showed that both PCT (AUC = 0.817, optimal cutoff: 0.69 ng/ml, P = 0.000) and sCD14-ST (AUC = 0.824, optimal cutoff: 258.27 pg/ml, P = 0.000) can distinguish PI versus PN patients well.
Conclusion:
Our results demonstrated that serum levels of PCT and sCD14-ST have the potential to be used as a diagnostic markers for postoperative spinal infection.
