الفهرس 
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Abstract
Sepsis is a systemic inflammatory response (SIRS) of the host to several infections. It can lead to severe sepsis which remains a principal cause of death in Intensive Care Units (ICU) worldwide, with one in four patients dying of severe sepsis or septic shock.
Early recognition of sepsis is not always straightforward and clinical signs at presentation can be misleading and very heterogeneous due to frequent comorbidities. In the emergency setting therefore an urgent need for a reliable diagnostic procedure, allowing early discrimination between SIRS and sepsis, is mandatory. Biomarkers, such as C-reactive protein (CRP) and procalcitonin (PCT), introduced among the diagnostic criteria of sepsis could contribute to promptly identify patients affected by sepsis, severe sepsis and septic shock who could benefit from quick and appropriate therapy.
The aim of this study is to evaluate the utility of Procalcitonin compared to the traditional inflammatory markers like C-reactive protein in antimicrobial stoppage in patients with septic shock.
This study included 60 patients who were admitted to Department of Critical care medicine – Benha University Hospitals.
After taken a written consent, patients were divided into two groups: PCT group and CRP group and were included when their diagnosis on admission or during their ICU stay was septic shock.
Patients’ demographics, comorbidities, current medications, and laboratory parameters were recorded from patients’ files.
Both CRP and PCT levels were measured on days 1, 4, 7 and 10. The physician’s decision to stop antibacterial therapy was dependent on the clinical response and the cutoff value of CRP and PCT.