Diagnostic accuracy of presepsin in predicting bacteraemia in elderly patients admitted to the emergency department: prospective study in Japan

OBJECTIVE: Early prediction of bacteraemia in the elederly is needed in the emergency department (ED). DESIGN, SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: A prospective study in Japan; single-centre trial in patients who satisfied the sepsis criteria was conducted between September 2014 and March 2016. Forty-six elderly patients aged ≥70 years were included. The study protocol was approved by the ethics committee of Osaka Medical College. Ethics Committee approval number was 1585. INTERVENTIONS: Blood sampling to evaluate C-reactive protein (CRP), procalcitonin (PCT) and presepsin plasma levels; two sets of blood sampling for bacterial cultures; and evaluations of the Sequential Organ Failure Assessment and Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation scores were performed on arrival at the ED. The results were compared between patients with bacteraemia and those without bacteraemia. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: The accuracy of detecting bacteraemia. RESULTS: The presepsin value was significantly higher in the bacteraemia group than in the non-bacteraemia group (866.6±184.6 vs 639.9±137.1 pg/mL, p=0.03). The PCT and CRP did not significantly differ between the groups. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve values were not significantly different among presepsin (0.69), PCT (0.61) and CRP (0.53). Multivariate analysis showed that presepsin was independently associated with bacteraemia (OR 8.84; 95% CI 0.95 to 81.79; p=0.02). CONCLUSION: Presepsin could be a good biomarker to predict bacteraemia in elderly patients with sepsis criteria admitted to the ED.