Valuable hematological indicators for the diagnosis and severity assessment of Chinese children with community-acquired pneumonia: Prealbumin

Ning, Jingjing; Shao, Xiaonan; Ma, Yibo; Lv, Darong

In conclusion, PA was highly sensitive to the diagnosis of CAP in children. Combined with traditional inflammatory markers such as WBC, percentage of neutrophils, neutrophil count, and ESR, PA may improve the diagnostic efficacy of CAP. In addition, PA was an independent protective factor for CAP in children. The reduction of PA was correlated with the severity of CAP, which can be used as a reference index to assess the severity of CAP except for X-ray, so as to guide clinical decision-making. Of course, there were some limitations in our study, such as the small sample size, low severe CAP ratio, and the mild degree of inflammation, which need to be further improved.