RESUMEN
Objective To evaluate the diagnostic value of procalcitonin in early ventilator-associated pneumonia. Methods CNKI database, Wanfang database and PubMed (2000-2014) were applied for document retrieval through keyword searching approach. Meta-analysis was used in all eligible studies. Results Thirteen studies were collected. The sample bank includes 1 137 cases , of which 599 cases were diagnosed as ventilator-associated pneumonia. Heterogeneity test showed that the homogeneity of the studies was good. The value of the weighted sensitivity was 59% (43% ~ 73%), the specificity was 89% (82% ~ 93%), the positive likelihood ratio was 3.69 (3.21 ~ 4.23), the negative likelihood ratio was 0.42 (0.32 ~ 0.55), and the SROC area under the curve (AUC) was 0.86. The value of the weighted sensitivity was 81%(73% ~ 87%), the specificity was 83%(73% ~ 90%). Conclusion Procalcitonin can be regarded as a valuable marker in early ventilator-associated pneumonia diagnosis , when the cut-off point of PCT is 2.0 μg/L.