Author(s)

Nouredine Sadeg^1,2*, Frédéric Tarlier^3,4, Laurence Veneau³, Hafid Belhadj-Tahar¹

¹Association Française de la Promotion de la Recherche Médicale (AFPreMed), Toulouse, France.
²Laboratoire Claude Bernard, Centre Hospitalier René Dubos, Pontoise, France.
³Unité Médico-Judiciaire, Centre Hospitalier Emmanuel Rain, Gonesse, France.
⁴Service des Urgences-SMUR Centre Hospitalier Léon Binet, Provins, France.

In this prospective study, we evaluated the use of PCT when collecting the body which was carried out. The chosen cut-off was set at 10 ng/mL because at this level, the PCT was associated to a multiorgan failure attributable to a septic shock.For 90 cases, two groups were stratified by their final diagnosis: 33 of for non violent deaths and 57 of violent deaths. There was no significant elevation of procalcitonin rate (PCT) in the group of violent deaths. We noted 6 elevations of PCT rate above 10 ng/mL for non violent deaths (15.4%) and in 3 cases there wasan evidence for an infectious context (recent anti- infectious treatments, chemotherapy in progress).Control of CRP performed on blood samples found initial elevations above 10 mg/L in 3 of the 6 cases (including 2 of 3 cases associated with an infectious context). There is no evidence of PCT rate increase for intermediate PMI (post mortem interval), long PMI and undefined PMI. This study found a PPV (positive predictive value) and clinical specificity of 100% for a cut-off set at 10 ng/mL. By taking this threshold, no significant PCT increase was observed in presence of death cases related to a violent origin as well as a fatal multiorgan failure due to malignant hyperthermia syndrome induced by neuroleptic use. The PCT appears to remain stable over time and whatever the conservation conditions of the body.

Procalcitonin; Sepsis; Biomarker; Neuroleptic Malignant Syndrome

Sadeg, N. , Tarlier, F. , Veneau, L. and Belhadj-Tahar, H. (2013) Procalcitonin interest to assess a septic state inducing the death. Forensic Medicine and Anatomy Research, 1, 67-69. doi: 10.4236/fmar.2013.14014.