Article ID Journal Published Year Pages File Type
9263308 Diagnostic Microbiology and Infectious Disease 2005 4 Pages PDF
Abstract
To assess the effect of liver dysfunction on the production of C-reactive protein (CRP), CRP levels were evaluated in patients with Escherichiacoli bacteremia with or without liver cirrhosis (LC). Thirty patients of each kind were selected as case and control groups, respectively. A matched control of 30 LC patients without acute infection was also included. In the patients with E. coli bacteremia, median CRP was 6.2 mg/dL (range 0.2-22.1) in the LC patients and 14.6 mg/dL (range 5.8-39.6) in the patients without liver dysfunction (P < 0.001). In the advanced LC patients in Child-Pugh class C, median CRP was 5.0 mg/dL (range 0.2-12.1) in patients with E. coli bacteremia and 0.5 mg/dL (range 0.1-1.2) in patients without acute infection (P < 0.001). Our data suggest that, although CRP levels are reduced in response to acute infection, production is nevertheless maintained even in patients with advanced liver dysfunction.
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