THE VALUE OF COMBINED DETECTION OF CRP, SAA AND PCT IN THE DIAGNOSIS OF SEVERE PNEUMONIA IN CHILDREN

Haiyang Zhang, Zhongqiang Liu, Deyuan Li, Lili Luo, Guoyan Lu, Lina Qiao^*

Department of Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, West China Second University Hospital, Sichuan University; Key Laboratory of Birth Defects and Related Diseases of Women and Children (Sichuan University), Ministry of Education, Chengdu, PR China

Objective: To study the clinical value of serum C-reactive protein (CRP), amyloid A (SAA) and procalcitonin (PCT) in the diagnosis of severe pneumonia in children.

Methods: A total of 80 children with pneumonia in our hospital from June 2018 to June 2019 were selected and divided into a severe (n=30) and a mild group (n=50) according to the severity of the disease. Also, 30 healthy children in the physical examination centre of our hospital were simultaneously selected as the control group. The differences in serum CRP, SAA and PCT levels in each group were detected and compared. The serum CRP, SAA and PCT positive rates were calculated. The clinical value of combined detection of CRP, SAA and PCT in the diagnosis of severe pneumonia in children was studied based on the ROC curve.

Results: Serum CRP, SAA and PCT levels in children with severe pneumonia were significantly higher than in mild and healthy groups (P<0.05). Significantly higher levels were observed in children with mild pneumonia when compared to the control group (P<0.01). The positive rates of serum CRP, SAA and PCT in the severe group were significantly higher than those in the mild group (P<0.05). The positive rate of CRP in children with severe and mild pneumonia was significantly higher than the other two indicators (P<0.05). The areas under the ROC curve for CRP, SAA and PCT for the diagnosis of severe pneumonia were 0.752, 0.784, and 0.831, respectively. The sensitivity and specificity in the diagnosis of severe pneumonia were 88.7 and 71.7% for CRP, 81.8 and 61.5% for SAA, and 68.6 and 82.1% for PCT, respectively. The area under the ROC curve of CRP+SAA+PCT for the diagnosis of severe pneumonia was 0.952, while the sensitivity and specificity were 82.2 and 94.8%, respectively.

Conclusion: The combined detections of serum CRP, SAA and PCT are of great significance in the clinical diagnosis and evaluation of severe pneumonia in children, which can be widely used in clinical practice.