Fig 1.
Flowchart of study selection.
Table 1.
Characteristics of studies associating PCT level with mortality.
Table 2.
Characteristics of studies associating PCT non-clearance with mortality.
Fig 2.
Deek’s funnel plot asymmetry test for publication bias
(A. For single procalcitonin concentration; B. For procalcitonin non-clearance). Potential publication bias exists (P<0.05).
Fig 3.
Forest plot of procalcitonin concentration to predict mortality in sepsis.
The overall pooled RR was 2.60 (95% CI, 2.05–3.30).
Fig 4.
Summary receiver operating characteristic graph of the included studies
(A. For single procalcitonin concentration; B. For procalcitonin non-clearance).
Table 3.
Subgroup analysis.
Fig 5.
Forest plot of procalcitonin non-clearance to predict mortality in sepsis.
The overall pooled RR was 3.05 (95% CI, 2.35–3.95).