Presepsin levels for discriminating sepsis and predicting mortality among organ failure patients stratified by hypercreatinemia

Abstract

To evaluate the accuracy of presepsin levels in diagnosing sepsis and predicting mortality among organ failure patients with and without hypercreatinemia in the emergency department (ED). This retrospective study was conducted on patients with positive quick sequential organ failure assessment (qSOFA) score and increase in SOFA score of ≥2 points. Hypercreatinemia, indicated by a creatinine level of ≥1.2 mg/dL, was defined as points ≥1 on the renal component of the SOFA score. The patients were divided into group 1 (sepsis with hypercreatinemia), group 2 (sepsis without hypercreatinemia), group 3 (non-sepsis with hypercreatinemia), and group 4 (non-sepsis without hypercreatinemia), and their presepsin levels were compared. Receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) analyses were performed to determine the accuracy of presepsin in diagnosing sepsis and predicting 30-day mortality. The optimal cutoff values were obtained to determine the presence of sepsis and predict the 30-day mortality. In all, 420 patients were eligible for this study. The presepsin levels in all pairwise comparisons between the groups were different (Group 1; 1311.5 (732.0–2179.5), Group 2; 566.5 (353.0–928.0), Group 3; 400.0 (291.0–579.0), Group 4; 231.0 (154.0–346.0)). Among patients with hypercreatinemia, the presepsin area under the ROC (AUROC) for diagnosing sepsis was 0.884 (optimal cutoff: 706 pg/mL). Among patients without hypercreatinemia, the presepsin AUROC for diagnosing sepsis was 0.854 (optimal cutoff: 352 pg/mL). The optimal cutoff values for predicting the patients’ 30-day mortality with and without hypercreatinemia were 1077 pg/mL and 393 pg/mL, respectively. Different cutoff values of presepsin based on creatinine levels could effectively diagnose sepsis in ED patients with organ failure. Further, presepsin was found to be associated with 30-day mortality in ED patients with organ failure, regardless of hypercreatinemia.