Comparison of neutrophil volume distribution width to C-reactive protein and procalcitonin as a proposed new marker of acute infection

AbstractBackground: The aim of this study was to assess the use of neutrophil distribution width (NDW) and to compare it to C-reactive protein (CRP) and procalcitonin (PCT), in the detection of early sepsis in the intensive care unit. Methods: Subjects (N = 166) were divided into 4 groups: healthy, acute inflammatory non-infectious (AINI), localized infection, and systemic infection, according to clinical history and cultures. NDW, CRP, and PCT were compared among the different groups using multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA). Diagnostic efficacy was assessed using receiver operating characteristic curves and areas under the curves (AUC). Results: The lowest meanNDW was found in the healthy group (n = 41), followed by the AINI (n = 20), localized infection (n = 55), and systemic infection (n = 50) groups. AUCNDW was 0.877 for infected (localized + systemic) vs non-infected (healthy + AINI) groups, and 0.965 for systemic infection vs non-infected groups. A cut-off of 21.9 resulted in 90% sensitivity...