Objective: The gold standartd for the diagnosis of sepsis is a positive blood culture result in association with specific clinical symptoms. However, since blood culture results are usually obtained too late, several markers of infection are investigated for early diagnosis of sepsis. In this study procalcitonin, C-reactive protein, interleukin- 6, interleukin-8 and endotoxin values were evaluated as early diagnostic parameters of sepsis.

Materials and Methods: The study included 36 sepsis patients admitted to various departments and intensive care units of Selçuk University Meram Medical School Hospital, Konya, Turkey between May 2006 and June 2007 and a control group of 20 healthy individuals.

Results: The cut-off values of the test parameters for the diagnosis of sepsis were found as 4.97 ng/ml for procalcitonin 92.7 mg/dl for C-reactive protein, 67.8 pg/ml for interleukin-6, 2.65 pg/ml for interleukin-8 and 1.85 pg/ml for endotoxin. The variation in leukocyte count, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, procalcitonin, C-reactive protein, interleukin-6, interleukin-8 and endotoxin values measured on the 0 and 7th days of sepsis were found statisticaly significant.

Conclusion: The most reliable marker for the diagnosis of sepsis was found to be procalcitonin. Although specificity and sensitivity of C.reaktive protein and interleukin-6 were lower than procalcitonin, these parameters could also help the clinician in the diagnosis of sepsis.