Presepsin teardown - pitfalls of biomarkers in the diagnosis and prognosis of bacterial infection in cirrhosis

Table 1 Demographic, clinical and laboratory characteristics of patients with or without bacterial infections

			Non-infected	Infected		P value
n			141	75
Gender (male/female)			77/64	41/34		NS
Age (yr)			57.3 ± 10.7	58.1 ± 9.7		NS
Child-Pugh score			6.9 ± 1.7	9.3 ± 2.2		< 0.001
Child-Pugh stage, n (%)
A			58 (41.1)	6 (8.0)		< 0.001
B			65 (46.1)	28 (37.3)
C			18 (12.8)	41 (54.7)
MELD score			12.3 ± 4.1	19.1 ± 9.1		< 0.001
Serum bilirubin (μmol/L)			41.4 ± 38.3	124.1 ± 147.4		< 0.001
Serum albumin (g/L)			35.4 ± 7.1	28.1 ± 6.5		< 0.001
INR			1.3 ± 0.2	1.6 ± 0.5		< 0.001
Serum creatinine (μmol/L)			83.8 ± 74.3	131.2 ± 129.9		< 0.001
Ascites present, n (%)			58 (41.1)	59 (78.7)		< 0.001
HCC, n (%)			4 (2.8)	11 (14.7)		0.003
Comorbidities present, n (%)			72 (51.1)	45 (60.0)		NS
Type of bacterial infections, n (%)
UTI				25 (29.4)
SBP				20 (23.5)
Pneumonia				18 (21.2)
SSTI				4 (4.7)
Miscellaneous				18 (21.2)
Multiple				9 (10.6)
Acute phase proteins, median (IQR)
Presepsin (pg/mL)	Overall		477 (332-680)	1002 (575-2149)		< 0.001
	OF absent	OF present		710 (533-1277)	2357 (1398-3666)	< 0.001
CRP (mg/L)	Overall		4.6 (1.8-8.8)	30.1 (11.3-57.4)		< 0.001
	OF absent	OF present		25 (9.6-40.5)	52.2 (23.4-84)	0.027
PCT (μmol/L)	Overall		0.1 (0.1-0.2)	0.4 (0.1-1.2)		< 0.001
	OF absent	OF present		0.2 (0.1-0.5)	1.7 (0.6-5.3)	< 0.001

Data are presented as mean ± SD or n (%) if not otherwise indicated. CRP: C-reactive protein; HCC: Hepatocellular carcinoma; IQR: Interquartile range; INR: International normalized ratio; MELD: Model for end-stage liver disease score; NS: Non-significant; PCT: Procalcitonin; SD: Standard deviation; UTI: Urinary tract infection; SBP: Spontaneous bacterial peritonitis; SSTI: Skin and soft tissue infection.