Low procalcitonin, community acquired pneumonia, and antibiotic therapy

• Published in: The Lancet infectious diseases Vol. 18; no. 5; pp. 496 - 497
• Main Authors: Kamat, Ishan S, Ramachandran, Vignesh, Eswaran, Harish, Abers, Michael S, Musher, Daniel M
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Ltd 01.05.2018; Elsevier Limited
• Subjects: Anti-Bacterial Agents; Antibiotics; Bacterial diseases; Bacterial infections; Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; Community-Acquired Infections; Humans; Infections; Infectious diseases; Mortality; Patients; Physicians; Pneumonia; Procalcitonin; Respiratory tract; Respiratory Tract Infections
• ISSN: 1473-3099; 1474-4457; 1474-4457
• DOI: 10.1016/S1473-3099(18)30215-9

In 1892 patients who were on procalcitonin-directed therapy in emergency departments, pneumonia was not required for inclusion: 758 patients had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or asthma exacerbations, and 151 patients had influenza. The mortality and treatment failure statistics are drawn from this aggregated group of patients with lower respiratory tract infections. Supplementary Material Supplementary appendix Author, year Relevant cases (n) Procalcitonin cutoff (ng/mL) Sensitivity (%) Hedlund, 2000 27 0·50 77·8% Masia, 2005 56 0·15 37·5% Hirakata, 2008 40 0·50 45·0% Daubin, 2009* 13 0·25 69·2% Song, 2011* 11 0·35 81·8% Ahn, 2011* 16 1·50 56·3% Kasamatsu, 2012 113 0·50 39·8% Musher, 2013 60 0·25 68·3% Pfister, 2014* 55 0·25 90·9% Rodriguez, 2016*† 196 0·25 78·0% Self, 2017 236 0·25 66·9% Table Sensitivity of procalcitonin concentrations for predicting bacterial infection in patients with community-acquired pneumonia