Establishment of reference intervals for maternal blood and umbilical cord blood procalcitonin in healthy Chinese women in late pregnancy

Abstract

Aim: To establish reference intervals (RIs) for maternal blood and umbilical cord blood procalcitonin (PCT) in healthy Chinese women in late pregnancy. Methods: One hundred and twenty-seven healthy Chinese women in late pregnancy, including 70 vaginal deliveries and 57 cesarean section deliveries, were retrospectively analyzed. These pregnant women gave birth to 58 male infants and 69 female infants. Another 127 age-matched healthy women who were not pregnant were enrolled as the control group. PCT levels in maternal blood, umbilical cord blood and control blood were determined using electrochemiluminescence immunoassay. The RIs of PCT were defined using an intermediate 95% interval. Results: The RIs for maternal blood and umbilical cord blood PCT were 0.020-0.075 ng/mL and 0.020--0.159 ng/mL, respectively. The cord blood PCT level was not significantly different between different delivery methods (P > 0.05). In contrast, the umbilical cord blood PCT in female newborns was higher than that in male newborns (0.088 AE 0.046 ng/mL vs 0.072 AE 0.030 ng/mL, P < 0.05). Conclusion: Maternal blood and umbilical cord blood PCT of Chinese women in late pregnancy have different RIs, and umbilical cord blood PCT level is affected by the gender of newborns.

Umbilical Cord Procalcitonin to Detect Early-Onset Sepsis in Newborns: A Promising Biomarker

“…In our study, a PCT cut-off value of 0.1 ng/ml corresponds with a sensitivity of 83%. This is in line with the available cord blood PCT reference interval data (28). Increasing the cut-off value to 0.6 ng/ml, such as in Huetz et al, would lower the sensitivity and specificity of umbilical PCT in our dataset to respectively 50% and 93%, which is undesirable (22).…”

Procalcitonin levels in pregnancy: A systematic review and meta‐analysis of observational studies

“…In addition, through citation searches of these articles, we identified 10 additional relevant studies. Due to inadequate reporting of procalcitonin data in 10 studies, a total of 25 articles met the final criteria for inclusion in this systematic review and meta‐analysis 16–35 . Among these studies, four did not contribute to the meta‐analysis, leaving 21 independent studies for analysis.…”

“…Due to inadequate reporting of procalcitonin data in 10 studies, a total of 25 articles met the final criteria for inclusion in this systematic review and meta-analysis. [16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35] Among these studies, four did not contribute to the meta-analysis, leaving 21 independent studies for analysis.…”