Agreement Between Two Procalcitonin Assays in Hospitalized Children

Abstract

Introduction Agreement between available procalcitonin (PCT) assays is unclear. We sought to compare concordance between Roche and bioMerieux PCT assays using pediatric samples. Methods We evaluated 213 plasma samples from 208 children. We tested each sample on both the Roche and bioMerieux PCT platforms. Results At ranges < 2 mu g/L, the Roche platform had a mean negative bias of 0.13 mu g/L versus the bioMerieux platform. This bias resulted in PCT levels that crossed accepted cut points in 12.7% of patients. Conclusions PCT levels measured on either platform are similar, especially at PCT ranges used for antibiotic decision-making algorithms. Funding This work was supported by an investigator-initiated research agreement through bioMerieux and by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Childhood Infection Research Program (ChIRP), National Institute of Health and the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences of the National Institute of Health.