ObjectiveTo evaluate the value of serum procalcitonin (PCT) in diagnosing intracranial infection in adults.MethodsLiteratures about serum PCT for diagnosing intracranial infection in adults were retrieved from English database (PubMed, The Cochrane Library）and Chinese database (China National Knowledge Infrastructure［CNKI］, Wanfang Database, and VIP Database) from establishment of database to June 2017. According to inclusion and exclusion criteria, QUADAS2 risk assessment tool provided by RevMan 5.3 statistical software was used to evaluate the quality of included literatures, MetaDisc 1.4 software was used for Meta analysis, Stata 13.0 software was used to judge the publication bias and draw Deeks diagram.ResultsA total of 9 articles and 1 446 patients were included in the study. Total sensitivity was 0.86 (95% CI: 0.82-0.89), specificity 0.91 (95% CI: 0.89-0.92), positive likelihood ratio 6.50 (95% CI: 4.15-10.18), negative likelihood ratio 0.15 (95% CI: 0.07-0.33), diagnostic odds ratio 44.66 (95% CI: 16.26-122.66), SROC AUC 0.9357, and Q* index 0.8720. Heterogeneity test showed there was heterogeneity among studies. Subgroup analysis showed that SROC AUC (0.9692) and Q* value (0.9185) were the highest when PCT positive threshold was 0.1-0.5 ng/mL.ConclusionSerum PCT has high diagnostic value for intracranial infection in adults, and can be used for differentiating diagnosis of intracranial infection.