Abstract

Aim: Procalcitonin is one of the precursors which forms calcitonin and today, it is being used as an indicator in the infections and inflammations of adult and children. Intestinal ischemia plays an important role in the etiology of numerous diseases from infancy to adulthood. Diseases associated with intestinal ischemia include necrotizing enterocolitis and midgut volvulus. Bacterial translocation resulted in the impairment of mucosal integrity secondary to the intestinal ischemia. The objective of this study is to assess whether serum procalcitonin could be used as an early indicator of intestinal ischemia.

Material and Methods: In our study, 35 rats were used. The subjects were randomly separated into 5 groups, each consisting of 7 rats. Mesenteric ischemia was applied for 120 minutes in Group 1, 60 minutes in group 2 and 30 minutes in Group 3. The subjects in Group 4 were designated as the sham control group. In Groups 1, 2 and 3 the abdomen was closed and reperfusion was applied for 4 hours. In Groups 4, the abdomen was closed upon the completion of the operation and 4 hours passed. Group 5 was classified as the control group. At the end, blood was taken for procalcitonin measurement and a segment of 3 cm was taken from the terminal ileum for pathological evaluation.

Results: There was a statistically significant difference between the procalcitonin serum levels of the five groups evaluated by Kruskal-Wallis variance analysis (p=0,01). However, in comparison of the groups by Mann-Whitney U test, this difference seemed to occur only between the control groups and the groups which intestinal ischemia was developed (p<0,05). No difference was observed in groups which intestinal ischemia was developed. There was no correlation between procalcitonin serum levels of groups and the severity of the histological findings.

Conclusion: It was observed that procalcitonin serum levels increased in the intestinal ischemia in the early period. As relationship between procalcitonin serum levels and degree of ischemia has not been identified in experimental intestinal ischemia, it could be considered that procalcitonin serum levels may be used as a negative screening test.