European Journal of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

SERUM PROCALCITONIN CONCENTRATION VS. TOTAL AND DIFFERENTIAL WHITE BLOOD CELL COUNT IN IRAQI BURN INJURY PATIENTS

Meroj A. Jasem, Dr. Ayser E.Mahmood, Dr.Alia E. AL-Ubadi and Abbas AL-Bahadli*

ABSTRACT

White Blood Cell (WBC) count is an important test because it is easily available, and inexpensive laboratory marker already in use all over the world. Microbiological cultures of burn injury require time and among the newest biomarkers to detect bacterial infection is procalcitonin (PCT) which has the highest diagnostic accuracy. The present study aimed to determine the priority of PCT over the total WBC count and differential count in burn injury, infection detection for three time samples after burn occurrence. The results demonstrate that total and differential WBC count did not show any significant differences between survivor and non-survivor. There was no significant correlation between PCT and WBC in non-survivor group and survivor groups for the three times of samples, while PCT value rapidly increased in non-survivor group but in the survival group decreased due to successful treatment. As a conclusion procalcitonin would be a more useful biomarker for diagnosis the inflammation in burn injuries.

Keywords: White Blood Cell, Procalcitonin, Burn Injury.