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. 2022 Feb 22;11(5):1155.
doi: 10.3390/jcm11051155.

Procalcitonin to Predict Severity of Acute Cholangitis and Need for Urgent Biliary Decompression: Systematic Scoping Review

Krixie Silangcruz  1 , Yoshito Nishimura  1   2 , Torrey Czech  1 , Nobuhiko Kimura  1 , James Yess  1
Affiliations

Procalcitonin to Predict Severity of Acute Cholangitis and Need for Urgent Biliary Decompression: Systematic Scoping Review

Krixie Silangcruz et al. J Clin Med. .

Abstract

Serum procalcitonin (PCT) has been reported as a potential biomarker to predict the severity of acute cholangitis (AC) or the need for urgent biliary decompression. This study aimed to identify and summarize the existing research about serum PCT and the severity of AC, and to find gaps towards which future studies can be targeted. Following the PRISMA extension for scoping reviews, MEDLINE, EMBASE, and Google Scholar were searched for all peer-reviewed articles with relevant keywords including "cholangitis" and "procalcitonin" from their inception to 13 July 2021. We identified six studies. All the studies employed a case-control design and aimed to evaluate the usefulness of serum PCT to predict the severity of AC with key identified outcomes. While the potential cut-off values of serum PCT for severe AC ranged from 1.8-3.1 ng/mL, studies used different severity criteria and the definition of urgent biliary decompression. No studies proposed cut-off PCT values for the need for urgent biliary decompression. This scoping review identified the current level of evidence regarding the usefulness of serum PCT in assessing the severity of AC. Further clinical research is warranted with a focus on standardized outcome measures employing prospective or experimental designs.

Keywords: acute cholangitis; procalcitonin; scoping review; systematic review.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) flowchart of the search strategy.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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