Value of procalcitonin, interleukin-6, C reative protein and white blood cell levels in diagnosis and treatment of diarrhea in children

Objective To evaluate the value of of procalcitonin (PCT), interleukin-6 (IL-6), C reative protein (CRP) and white blood cell (WBC) levels in the diagnosis and treatment of diarrhea in children. Methods Stool samples were collected from 85 children with diarrhea (48 from children infected with rotavirus, 37 from children with bacterial infection) and 35 healthy children to detect rotavirus antigen, PCT, IL-6, CRP and WBC. Four days after hospitalization, stool samples were collected again from children infected with rotavirus, and rotavirus antigen, PCT, IL-6, CRP and WBC were detected in children with or without secondary infections. Results The PCT, IL-6, CRP and WBC levels in rotavirus group were lower than those in bacterial infection group,but higher than those in control group, the differences were statistical significance (P0.05). The detections of PCT, IL-6, CRP and WBC have great value in the diagnosis and treatment of diarrhea in children, but the positive predicting values, negative predicting values, specificities and sensitivities of PCT and IL-6 were higher than those of CRP and WBC. The levels of PCT, IL-6, CRP and WBC in rotavirus group with secondary bacterial infection were significantly higher than those in rotavirus group without secondary bacterial infections. Conclusion PCT, IL-6, CRP and WBC levels can be used as markers in the early diagnosis of rotavirus infection in children and in related diagnosis evaluation and complication prediction.