Introduction– Continuous Ambulatory Peritoneal dialysis( CAPD) is  the established treatment  modality for  patients with end–stage renal disease. Peritonitis is the most common  complication noted and remains the major cause of morbidity and mortality. Early diagnosis of peritonitis would  help to start the treatment and thereby reduce the complications associated with it. Culture of the effluent is the most common practice but associated with high false negative rate, therefore inflammatory markers such as erythrocyte sedimentation rate, white blood cell count, dialysate cell count, Procalcitonin  and C–reactive protein(CRP) have been studied and documented.

Aim– To evaluate the usefulness of Procalcitonin  for the diagnosis of peritonitis.

Material and Method– This was a prospective observational study conducted from August 2014– October 2016.  During this period 61 clinically diagnosed  peritonitis patients   who were on CAPD were studied.

Result– Patients age ranged from 16–77 yrs ,with a mean  age of 54.6 yrs. There was male 81.9% (n=50)preponderance over females 18.0%(n=11). Duration of CAPD before development of peritonitis ranged from 8 months to 36 months .All the patients were hypertensive and 49.18% (n=30) were diabetic.   

     Out of 61 peritonitis patient samples, only 19 (31.1%)  were culture positive , CRP levels were elevated in 49.1 %(n=30) while PCT levels were elevated in 70.5%(n=43). Among culture positives, 68.4%(n=13) grew gram negative organism, 15.7%(n=3) gram positive organism, 10.5%(n=2) fungi and  only 1 (5.2%) grew mycobacterium tuberculosis.  Escherichia.coli  was the Predominant organism.

  After appropriate treatment 68.80%(n=42) of patient recovered, while catheter had to be removed in 22.4%(n=14) and despite of all measures 8.19%(n=5) of patient expired.

Conclusion– Procalcitonin showed promising result for  the diagnosis of peritonitis.