CALCA and Sepsis: Procalcitonin demonstrated the highest diagnostic performance, with an AUC = 0.955, optimal cutoff = 1.10 ng/mL, sensitivity = 95.5%, specificity = 87.5%, and Youden’s J = 0.830. IL-6 showed moderate accuracy (AUC = 0.727, Youden’s J = 0.345**), while CRP exhibited comparatively lower discriminative ability (AUC = 0.705, Youden’s J = 0.234**). These findings indicate that PCT is the most reliable early biomarker for identifying postoperative sepsis following lung decortication.