Potential of circulatory procalcitonin as a biomarker reflecting inflammation among South Indian diabetic foot ulcers

We aimed to assess the diagnostic accuracy of procalcitonin (PCT) compared with other traditional markers and its association with inflammatory cytokines. The findings showed a significant difference in the levels of PCT up to sevenfold in infected diabetic foot ulcer (DFU) compared with noninfected DFU, which was better than for other traditional markers, such as C-reactive protein levels, white blood cell count, and erythrocyte sedimentation rate. Moreover, PCT was found to have positively correlated with helper T-cell subtypes 1 and 17 inflammatory cytokines. Based on our findings, we could clinically use PCT as a marker to distinguish the mild line between infected and noninfected DFUs.