ObjectiveThe current study aimed to know procalcitonin levels in patients with metastatic tumor, and to discover the cut-off point for sepsis in this population. A cross-sectional study was conducted with patients with solid tumor. Sepsis and systemic inflammation response syndrome (SIRS) were identified using clinical, laboratory, and microbiological criteria. The cut-off point was determined using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve.ResultsA total of 112 subjects enrolled in this study, 51% male, mean age 47.9 ± 12.47 years. Among 71 (63.4%) patients who had metastasis, 36 (32.1%) had sepsis and 6 (5.3%) experienced SIRS. In the absence of sepsis, the procalcitonin levels were significantly higher in patients with metastatic tumor compared to those without [0.25 ng/mL (0.07–1.76) vs. 0.09 ng/mL (0.03–0.54); p < 0.001]. The ROC curve showed that levels of procalcitonin for sepsis in metastatic solid tumors were in the area under curve (AUC) [0.956; CI 0.916–0.996]. Cut-off point of procalcitonin for sepsis was 1.14 ng/mL, Sn 86%, and Sp 88%. Thus, the results show that metastatic tumor affects the patients’ procalcitonin level, even in the absence of sepsis. The cut-off point of procalcitonin level for diagnosing sepsis in the meta-static solid tumor was higher compared to the standard value.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s13104-018-3204-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Obscure gastrointestinal bleeding (OGIB) is bleeding in the digestive tract which persist or recur and with unclear aetiology. OGIB is one of the important problems in the gastrointestinal field due to difficulty in diagnosing the aetiology and determining the source of digestive tract bleeding in patients. In diagnosing the cause of OGIB, clinical approach through history taking and physical examination still have important roles. Most of the sources of bleeding in OGIB is from the small intestine, which cannot be reached by esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD) or colonoscopy. Therefore, role of diagnostic tool which is able to perform total enteroscopy becomes important in diagnosing the cause of OGIB.Double balloon enteroscopy (DBE) technique is a safe endoscopy procedure which may use oral or even rectal approach. In finding the cause of OGIB, where most of the lesions is found in the proximal region of the small intestine, oral approach is more beneficial. When bleeding is not found after conventional endoscopy is performed, it needs to be suspected that the source might come from the small intestine. Currently, the two main modalities which can be used in the evaluation are video capsule endoscopy (VCE) and DBE. However, based on cost effectiveness DBE without prior VCE has benefit because it can also administer therapy in the abnormalities being found. Keywords: obscure gastrointestinal bleeding, endoscopy, diagnosis, double balloon enteroscopy
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.