ArticleInternational journal of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease2012
Utility of serum procalcitonin values in patients with acute exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: a cautionary note.
Article in International journal of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
20 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 53 citations in OpenAlex.
- Diagnostic value of procalcitonin for identifying the etiology of lower respiratory tract infections: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC infectious diseases · 2025Pooled it
- Biomarkers to guide the use of antibiotics for acute exacerbations of COPD (AECOPD): a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC pulmonary medicine · 2022Pooled it
- Inflammatory Biomarkers Are Inaccurate Indicators of Bacterial Infection on Admission in Patients With Acute Exacerbation of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease-A Systematic Review and Diagnostic Accuracy Network Meta-Analysis.Frontiers in medicine · 2021Pooled it
- Procalcitonin to guide antibiotic administration in COPD exacerbations: a meta-analysis.European respiratory review : an official journal of the European Respiratory Society · 2017Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Procalcitonin for Antibiotic Prescription in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Exacerbations: Systematic Review, Meta-Analysis, and Clinical Perspective.Pulmonary therapy · 2020Review
- A 2020 review on the role of procalcitonin in different clinical settings: an update conducted with the tools of the Evidence Based Laboratory Medicine.Annals of translational medicine · 2020Review
- Serum Procalcitonin Level as a Predictor of Bacterial Infection in Patients with COPD Exacerbation.Tanaffos · 2019Article
- The Use of Serum Procalcitonin as a Diagnostic and Prognostic Biomarker in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Exacerbations: A Literature Review Update.Journal of clinical medicine research · 2018Review
- Comparison of efficiency of inhaled and intravenous corticosteroid on pregnant women with COPD and the effects on the expression of PCT and hs-CRP.Experimental and therapeutic medicine · 2018Article
- Postobstructive Pneumonia: An Underdescribed Syndrome.Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America · 2016Article
- Host Biomarkers for Distinguishing Bacterial from Non-Bacterial Causes of Acute Febrile Illness: A Comprehensive Review.PloS one · 2016Review
- The clinical impact of the detection of potential etiologic pathogens of community-acquired pneumonia.Diagnostic microbiology and infectious disease · 2015Article
- Antibiotic Discontinuation Rates Associated with Positive Respiratory Viral Panel and Low Procalcitonin Results in Proven or Suspected Respiratory Infections.Infectious diseases and therapy · 2015Article
- Procalcitonin and C-reactive protein cannot differentiate bacterial or viral infection in COPD exacerbation requiring emergency department visits.International journal of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease · 2015Article
- Reply to Musher et al.The Journal of infectious diseases · 2014Article
- Biomarkers in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: confusing or useful?International journal of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease · 2014Review
- Bacterial complications of respiratory tract viral illness: a comprehensive evaluation.The Journal of infectious diseases · 2013Article
- Serum procalcitonin levels in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients in North Indian Population.Annals of African medicineArticle
- Optimal cut-off value of serum procalcitonin in predicting bacterial infection induced acute exacerbation in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: A prospective observational study.Chronic respiratory diseaseObservational
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
10 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundSerum procalcitonin levels have been used as a biomarker of invasive bacterial infection and recently have been advocated to guide antibiotic therapy in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). However, rigorous studies correlating procalcitonin levels with microbiologic data are lacking. Acute exacerbations of COPD (AECOPD) have been linked to viral and bacterial infection as well as noninfectious causes. Therefore, we evaluated procalcitonin as a predictor of viral versus bacterial infection in patients hospitalized with AECOPD with and without evidence of pneumonia.
methodsAdults hospitalized during the winter with symptoms consistent with AECOPD underwent extensive testing for viral, bacterial, and atypical pathogens. Serum procalcitonin levels were measured on day 1 (admission), day 2, and at one month. Clinical and laboratory features of subjects with viral and bacterial diagnoses were compared.
resultsIn total, 224 subjects with COPD were admitted for 240 respiratory illnesses. Of these, 56 had pneumonia and 184 had AECOPD alone. A microbiologic diagnosis was made in 76 (56%) of 134 illnesses with reliable bacteriology (26 viral infection, 29 bacterial infection, and 21 mixed viral bacterial infection). Mean procalcitonin levels were significantly higher in patients with pneumonia compared with AECOPD. However, discrimination between viral and bacterial infection using a 0.25 ng/mL threshold for bacterial infection in patients with AECOPD was poor.
conclusionProcalcitonin is useful in COPD patients for alerting clinicians to invasive bacterial infections such as pneumonia but it does not distinguish bacterial from viral and noninfectious causes of AECOPD.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.