Title

Comparative assessment of total WBC and C- reactive protein counts to procalcitonin levels in subjects having maxillofacial space infection

Authors

Priyadershini A Rangari¹, Neelam Singh², Alisha Singh³, Himani Naresh Singh^4,*, Azam Khan⁵ & Udaybhan Singh⁶

Affiliation

¹Department of Dentistry, Nandkumar Singh Chouhan Government Medical College, Khandwa, Madhya Pradesh, India; ²Department of Dentistry, Shri Krishna Medical College Hospital, Muzaffarpur, Bihar, India; ³Department of Dentistry, ESIC Medical College and Hospital, Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India; ⁴Department of ENT, Dr. Laxminarayan Pandey Government Medical College, Ratlam, Madhya Pradesh, India; ⁵Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Dental College Azamgarh, Uttar Pradesh, India; ⁶Department of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery, R.R. Dental College & Hospital, Udaipur, Rajasthan, India; *Corresponding author

Email

Priyadershini A Rangari - E-mail: panhealth121013@gmail.com

Neelam Singh - E-mail: neelam.kgdu@gmail.com

Alisha Singh - E-mail: alishasingh24@yahoo.com

Himani Naresh Singh - E-mail: drhimani39@gmail.com

Azam Khan - E-mail: doc_azam@yahoo.co.in

Udaybhan Singh - E-mail: udaybhansingh20021987@gmail.com

Article Type

Research Article

Date

Received April 1, 2026; Revised April 30, 2026; Accepted April 30, 2026, Published April 30, 2026

Abstract

Orofacial space infections pose life-threatening risks requiring urgent intervention, but trismus/swelling hinders diagnosis. WBC/CRP count help monitors infection. However, PCT (Procalcitonin) offers superior bacterial specificity. Therefore, it is of interest to compare PCT, CRP and WBC levels at admission, 48 h and 96 h in 40 adults with maxillofacial space infections. PCT levels declined significantly earlier (p < 0.05 at admission-to-48h and 48h-to-96h) than CRP/WBC, correlating with clinical improvement and antibiotic response. PCT's rapid normalization outperformed traditional markers in reflecting treatment efficacy amid diagnostic challenges. Thus, we document PCT as a precise biomarker for guiding antibiotic therapy and prognostication in maxillofacial infections.

Keywords

Antibiotic regimen, C-reactive protein (CRP), maxillofacial space infections, procalcitonin (PCT), white blood cell (WBC) counts

Citation

Rangari et al. Bioinformation 22(4): 2476-2480 (2026)

Edited by

Vini Mehta

ISSN

0973-2063

Publisher

Biomedical Informatics

License

This is an Open Access article which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. This is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.