OBJECT To assess the clinical value of procalcitonin to guide antibiotic therapy in acute exacerbations of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. METHODS Patients with acute exacerbations of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis were randomly assigned to the procalcitonin-guided group (antibiotic use guided by a procalcitonin threshold of 0.25 ng/ml) or the routine treatment group (antibiotic use according t...

INTRODUCTION Previous studies have shown that cysteine-rich secretory protein containing LCCL domain 2 (CRISPLD2) is a novel lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-binding protein, and the upregulation of CRISPLD2 expression protects mice against LPS-induced lethality. The aim of this study was to examine the expression of CRISPLD2 in patients with sepsis and characterize the association of this protein with...

Background: Sepsis in neonates presents itself with non-specific clinical features which makes early diagnosis difficult. However, procalcitonin (PCT) and other inflammatory markers have recently been considered as sensitive markers for the early detection of neonatal sepsis. Therefore, the present study aimed to determine the diagnostic value of PCT in the early detection of neonatal sepsis an...

The clinical utility of serum procalcitonin (PCT) levels continues to evolve. PCT is regarded as a promising candidate marker for making a diagnosis and antibiotic stewardship in patients with systemic infections. The aim of this review is to summarize the current evidence for PCT in different infections and clinical settings, and to discuss the reliability of this marker when used with validat...

CLINICAL QUESTION In patients with respiratory tract infection, is measurement of procalcitonin to guide antibiotic prescriptions associated with reduced antibiotic exposure without increases in all-cause mortality or treatment failure? BOTTOM LINE The measurement of procalcitonin to guide initiation and duration of antibiotic treatment in patients with respiratory tract infections of varying...

background: the differentiation of infected diabetic foot ulcers (idfu) from non infected diabetic foot ulcers (nidfu) is a challenging issue for clinicians. objectives: recently, procalcitonin (pct) was introduced as a remarkable inflammatory marker. we aimed to evaluate the accuracy of pct in comparison to other inflammatory markers for distinguishing idfu from nidfu. conclusions: these resul...

Volume 84, Number 2 www.aafp.org/afp American Family Physician 177 Procalcitonin is a precursor to calcitonin that is elevated only in the presence of a bacterial infection. Measurement of procalcitonin is being pushed as a way to determine the presence or absence of bacterial infection and, therefore, as a way to reduce antibiotic use. But, how well does it work in the patients family physicia...

Can the use of serum procalcitonin levels safely reduce antimicrobial use in intensive care unit (ICU) patients? We performed a systematic literature review that identified 6 published randomized controlled trials comparing PCT-guided antimicrobial therapy to usual care in ICU patients, extracting data on ICU and patient characteristics, PCT guideline content, intensity of antimicrobial exposur...

OBJECTIVE There is increasing interest for strategies that could curtail antibiotic resistance in the critical care setting. We sought to determine the effectiveness and safety of procalcitonin-guided algorithms in the management of septic patients in the intensive care unit. DATA SOURCES MEDLINE, Scopus, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (through April 2010), reference lists of ...