Pentraxin-3, procalcitonin and lactate as prognostic markers in patients with sepsis and septic shock

The purpose of this study was to confirm the prognostic value of pentraxin-3 (PTX3), procalcitonin (PCT) and lactate in patients with severe infections requiring ICU management and to develop and validate a model to enhance mortality prediction by combining severity scores with biomarkers. We included 141 patients with the diagnosis of sepsis/septic shock. The levels of PTX3, PCT and lactate were measured on day 0, 3, 7 of hospitalization and Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) and Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II (APACHE II) scores were also evaluated. The influence of these variables on 28-day mortality was evaluated. The 28-day mortality rate in this study was 28.8%. The baseline levels of PTX3, PCT and lactate in the non-survival group were higher than in the survival group (P < 0.05 for all). Pearson's correlation found that PTX3, PCT and lactate were all positively correlated with SOFA and APACHE II scores (P < 0.01 for all). Univariate and multivariate Cox regression revealed that PTX3, PCT and lactate were independently associated with 28-day mortality. The models combining above three biomarkers performed better predictive property than each individual one as determined by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. In summary, our results suggest that PTX3, PCT and lactate could serve as clinically informative biomarkers of disease severity and patient outcome in sepsis/septic shock. A model combining PTX3, PCT and lactate improves mortality prediction in these patients.