Diagnostic usefulness of sCD163, procalcitonin and neopterin for sepsis risk assessment in critically ill patients.

BACKGROUND: Sepsis is one of the most common causes of hospitalization and it is characterized by a high mortality rate in spite of the great progress in diagnosis and treatment achieved in recent years. Early diagnosis of sepsis is one of the most important elements of effective treatment. The clinical symptoms are not specific and biomarkers are considered to be useful tools in sepsis diagnostics. OBJECTIVES: The aim of our study was to evaluate the diagnostic value of sCD163 as a marker of sepsis and a comparison of it with procalcitonin and neopterin in ICU patients. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Concentrations of PCT, sCD163 and NPT were measured in 52 serum samples collected from 30 patients of the Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Therapy of the University Hospital in Wroclaw. Venous blood was collected on the 1st and 3rd day of hospitalization. The Human CD163 Quantikine ELISA Kit was used to determine the concentrations of sCD163. Neopterin concentrations were measured by a Neopterin ELISA kit. PCT was measured at the University Center of Laboratory Diagnostics in Wroclaw using an automatic VIDAS® B.R.A.H.M.S. PCT assay. RESULTS: Our study showed that there was a significant difference between the values obtained in the study and the reference group for PCT (p < 0.0001), sCD163 (p = 0.0001) and NPT (p = 0.0001), whereas there was no difference observed between the samples obtained on the 1st and 3rd day (p = 0.5129). The area under the ROC curve was 0.847, and was comparable to the AUC of procalcitonin (0.840), and slightly higher than the AUC of neopterin (0.763), although these differences were not significant (p = 0.2990 and p = 0.9329, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: sCD163 and neopterin are promising parameters in the diagnosis of sepsis, and their value in the diagnosis of sepsis in critically ill patients may be comparable to procalcitonin.

Biofilm formation and cellulose expression by Bordetella avium 197N, the causative agent of bordetellosis in birds and an opportunistic respiratory pathogen in humans.

Although bacterial cellulose synthase (bcs) operons are widespread within the Proteobacteria phylum, subunits required for the partial-acetylation of the polymer appear to be restricted to a few γ-group soil, plant-associated and phytopathogenic pseudomonads, including Pseudomonas fluorescens SBW25 and several Pseudomonas syringae pathovars. However, a bcs operon with acetylation subunits has also been annotated in the unrelated ß-group respiratory pathogen, Bordetella avium 197N. Our comparison of subunit protein sequences and GC content analyses confirms the close similarity between the B. avium 197N and pseudomonad operons and suggests that, in both cases, the cellulose synthase and acetylation subunits were acquired as a single unit. Using static liquid microcosms, we can confirm that B. avium 197N expresses low levels of cellulose in air-liquid interface biofilms and that biofilm strength and attachment levels could be increased by elevating c-di-GMP levels like the pseudomonads, but cellulose was not required for biofilm formation itself. The finding that B. avium 197N is capable of producing cellulose from a highly-conserved, but relatively uncommon bcs operon raises the question of what functional role this modified polymer plays during the infection of the upper respiratory tract or survival between hosts, and what environmental signals control its production.