Diagnostic testing for a high-grade inflammation: parameter dynamics and novel markers

Abstract

AbstractThe timely detection of severe inflammatory conditions is of great importance for early therapy initiation and the patient’s prognosis. The complex humoral and cellular processes involved in inflammation offer many opportunities for diagnostic testing, which are still unused in clinical practice. We investigated the dynamics of four established and two novel potential markers during the onset and resolution of a high-grade inflammation.We retrospectively analyzed C-reactive protein and procalcitonin concentrations, leukocyte and thrombocyte counts, granularity index, and δ-hemoglobin measured in peripheral blood samples of patients undergoing inflammation diagnostics between September 2010 and November 2010. Data from a consecutive sample of 53,968 patients were available.Trajectories for the parameters’ dynamics during the onset and resolution of a high-grade inflammation were calculated with a locally weighted scatter plot smoothing method. The leukocyte count trajectories did not exceed the reference range.We were able to elucidate the parameter dynamics with time coordinates rounded to the nearest hour and a follow-up of 168 h.