Abstract:Objective To study the clinical values of procalcitonin (PCT) level in identifying the species of bacteria causing bloodstream infection in patients with septicemia. Methods All the patients with septicemia admitted into our hospital from July 2014 to June 2016 were the objects of this study. And on the 1st day their serum PCT level, WBC and CRP level were tested. During the study, the differences of serum PCT levels were compared among the patients with septicemia caused by different bacteria. At the same time the receiver operating curve (ROC) was used to study the diagnostic efficiency of PCT and CRP in differentiation of bloodstream infections caused by Gram-negative (G-) bacteria and Gram-positive (G+) bacteria. Results In this study, there were 339 cases of bacterial bloodstream infection, including 226 cases with G- bacterial infections and 113 cases with G+ bacterial infections. The median PCT levels of the G- group and the G+ group were 8.03 (1.37-36.05) ng/ml and 0.63 (0.22-4.68) ng/ml, the difference of serum PCT levels between the two groups had statistical significance (P < 0.05). In the G- group, there were no significant differences in serum PCT levels among the patients with different major G- bacterial infections (P > 0.05). The differences of serum PCT levels among the patients with differrnt major G+ bacterial infections from G+ group had statistical significance (P < 0.05). When the cutoff value was set to 2 ng/ml, the sensitivity of serum PCT level on distinguishing bloodstream infections caused by G- and G+ bacteria was 71.2% and the specificity was 64.6%. The area under ROC to distinguish G- and G+ bacteria was 72.1 (P < 0.05). Conclusions Serum PCT level has good clinic application value in distinguishing bloodstream infections caused by G- bacteria and G+ bacteria. Serum PCT level has no clinic application value in distinguishing bloodstream infections caused by different G- bacteria. However, PCT level can distinguish the bloodstream infections caused by Streptococcus or Staphylococcus aureus from those caused by coagulase negative Staphylococci.