Dysnatremia, vasopressin, atrial natriuretic peptide and mortality in patients with community-acquired pneumonia: results from the german competence network CAPNETZ.

Background: Dysnatremia is a frequent finding in patients with community acquired pneumonia (CAP) and a predictor of mortality. We studied the relation between dysnatremia, comorbidities and CT-pro-AVP and MR-proANP.

Methods: We enrolled 2138 patients (60 ± 18 years, 55% male) with CAP from the CAPNETZ database.

Inflammatory parameters and prediction of prognosis in infective endocarditis.

Background: Procalcitonin (PCT) is widely used in critically ill patients to diagnose clinically significant infection and sepsis. Aim of this study was to evaluate the prognostic value of PCT in comparison to white blood cell count (WBC) and C-reactive protein (CRP) for clinical outcome and its correlation with microbiological etiology in patients with infective endocarditis (IE).

Methods: A retrospective single-center analysis was performed from 2007 till 2009.