SERUM PROCALCITONIN LEVELS IN ACUTE EXACERBATION OF INTERSTITIAL LUNG DISEASE PATIENTS ADMITTED AT A TERTIARY CARE CENTER

Background: Acute exacerbation of ILD can be attributed to varying etiologies ranging from infection, aspiration, and pulmonary embolism. An elevated procalcitonin (PCT) is a marker of infection. This study was done to evaluate serum PCT levels in patients with acute exacerbation of ILD admitted and correlate the serum PCT with clinical course and outcome of hospital admission. Methods: In this hospital based observational study data was captured from patients admitted with an acute exacerbation of ILD. Along with history, clinical examination, serum PCT levels were measured along with other baseline investigations including sputum pyogenic culture and sensitivity. Result: 53 patients with acute exacerbation were included in the study, 3 patients died due to the event (mortality rate 6%). Serum PCT levels (Mean±SD) in acute exacerbation of ILD patients were 0.83+/- 0.51. Serum PCT correlated with total leukocyte counts (TLC) (p<0.05) and inversely correlated with SPO2 levels (p<0.005). There was signicant association of serum PCT level groups and the outcome of the sputum pyogenic culture and sensitivity results (p<0.005). It was found that there was no signicant correlation between raised serum PCT levels with duration of hospitalization and mortality. Conclusion: Mortality rate in our study with acute exacerbation of ILD was around 6%. Raised PCT was noted in 13% of patients which inversely correlated with oxygen saturation. We conclude that serum PCT is a useful biomarker for ruling out infection and it guides appropriate pharmaco-therapy including steroids and antibiotics.