Infect Dis (Lond). 2025 Dec 7:1-11. doi: 10.1080/23744235.2025.2598808. Online ahead of print.
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES: Evaluation of pancreatic stone protein (PSP) plasma levels has been proven effective in predicting unfavourable outcomes in patients with Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia (VAP), infection after cardiothoracic surgery and peritonitis. It is also being studied as a sepsis biomarker with promising results compared to other commonly used biomarkers. We aim to validate PSP in septic patients with community acquired infections. This will help to establish its role in point-of-care settings.
METHODS: Adult patients consecutively admitted to the Emergency Department (ED) of a tertiary medical centre, with the diagnosis of intra-abdominal infection (IAI), urinary tract infection (UTI) and lower respiratory tract infection (LRTI) who met the inclusion criteria were enrolled. PSP was measured in whole blood, within one hour since admission, by spectrophotometry using abioSCOPE device. Statistical analysis was performed, and a cut-off value for PSP to predict the composite outcome of sepsis, readmission, antibiotic treatment escalation and need for invasive treatment was estimated. Patients were followed for 28 days to document their outcomes.
RESULTS: A total of one hundred and one (n = 101) patients were included. Forty-five were male. The most common comorbidity was hypertension (33%). Fifty-three (52.5%) had LRTI, thirty-seven (36.6%) had UTI and nineteen (18.8%) had IAI. Thirteen of them had more than one type of infection. Our primary outcome met statistical significance, as PSP predicted the composite outcome of sepsis, readmission, antibiotic treatment escalation and need of invasive treatment with an Area Under Curve (AUC) =0.844 (95% CI 0.767-0.920), in the optimal cut-off of 48.5 ng/ml. PSP predicted sepsis with an AUC = 0.892 (95% CI 0.826-0.956) and was also an independent risk factor for sepsis and mortality after age adjustment. PSP was superior to the common used sepsis biomarkers, C-reactive protein (CRP), ferritin, lactate dehydrogonase (LDH)/albumin ratio, White Blood Cell count (WBC), fibrinogen and lactate both for sepsis and for the composite outcome. It was also correlated with Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) day 1 (D1), SOFA peak and qSOFA and its prognostic value was independent of renal function, despite being inversely proportional to estimated Glomerular Filtration Rate (eGFR), reflecting the sepsis-related acute kidney injury (SAKI).
CONCLUSIONS: PSP is a valuable biomarker that can rule out patients who do not have sepsis and are not in high risk to develop sepsis the following days, giving valuable insights regarding their antimicrobial coverage and management in general. It seems to be superior to other biomarkers in sepsis prediction and adequately compatible with frequently used sepsis assessment scores, such as SOFA. In the Emergency Department setting PSP can distinguish infected patients at high risk for sepsis who have low qSOFA scores.
PMID:41353590 | DOI:10.1080/23744235.2025.2598808
