To Procalcitonin, or Not to Procalcitonin?

Using Procalcitonin to Guide Antibiotic Therapy

Procalcitonin levels rise in response to systemic inflammation, especially of bacterial origin. Multiple randomized controlled trials have demonstrated that procalcitonin-based algorithms can safely reduce antibiotic use in 2 clinical scenarios. First, in stable, low-risk patients with respiratory infections, procalcitonin levels of <0.25 µg/L can guide the decision to withhold antibiotics or s...

Use of Procalcitonin in Patients on Chronic Hemodialysis: Procalcitonin Is Not Related with Increased Serum Calcitonin

Objectives. To investigate whether procalcitonin (PCT) could be useful for detecting bacterial infections in patients on hemodialysis (HD) and with increased calcitonin (CT). Methods. This prospective study included 42 males and 34 females on HD. The infection group consisted of 15 patients with proven bacterial infections; the other 61 patients were designated as the noninfection group. Serum ...

Procalcitonin: seeking a niche

For over a decade there has been intense interest given to the role of procalcitonin in the diagnosis and management of sepsis in critically ill patients. Early opinions strongly supported the diagnostic role but data accumulating from numerous subsequent studies are less supportive, even when used in very selective settings. Although there remains sufficient reason to support the use of procal...

Analyzed for Procalcitonin (liaison

Brahms PCT), yielding a result of 0.88 g/L, slightly higher than the cutoff value (0.58 g/L). The crossreactivity with procalcitonin might be more likely in our sample measured with a polyclonal assay. Other interferences cannot be excluded. The 2 CT assays give markedly different results. The introduction of an internationally agreed upon standard would contribute to optimizing the CT assay, t...

Procalcitonin in takayasu arteritis.