SynthesisCritical care (London, England)2019
Procalcitonin levels in candidemia versus bacteremia: a systematic review.
Synthesis in Critical care (London, England), 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 31 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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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.
The trial behind it
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
31 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 56 citations in OpenAlex.
- Procalcitonin in the Assessment of Ventilator Associated Pneumonia: A Systematic Review.Advances in experimental medicine and biology · 2021Pooled it
- Diagnostic performance of procalcitonin for predicting bloodstream infection and guidance on microbial aetiology: a prospective study at an Egyptian tertiary care hospital.BMC infectious diseases · 2026Article
- Multi-Marker Approach in Sepsis: A Clinical Role Beyond SOFA Score.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2026Article
- Candidemia: An Update on Epidemiology, Risk Factors, Diagnosis, Susceptibility, and Treatment.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Impact of minimally invasive surgery on immune function and stress response in gastric cancer patients.World journal of gastrointestinal surgery · 2024Article
- The Diagnostic Accuracy of Procalcitonin and Its Combination with Other Biomarkers for Candidemia in Critically Ill Patients.Journal of clinical medicine · 2024Article
- Exploring European Consensus About the Remaining Treatment Challenges and Subsequent Opportunities to Improve the Management of Invasive Fungal Infection (IFI) in the Intensive Care Unit.Mycopathologia · 2024Article
- A machine learning strategy to mitigate the inappropriateness of procalcitonin request in clinical practice.Heliyon · 2024Article
- Clinical significance of inflammatory markers for evaluating disease severity of mixed-pathogen bloodstream infections of bothHeliyon · 2024Article
- Biomarkers in sepsis-looking for the Holy Grail or chasing a mirage!World journal of critical care medicine · 2023Review
- Fatal septic shock due to disseminated coccidioidomycosis: a case series and review of the literature.BMC infectious diseases · 2023Review
- Nutritional risk factors for all-cause mortality of critically ill patients: a retrospective cohort study.BMJ open · 2022Article
- Concurrent and Subsequent Co-Infections ofMicroorganisms · 2022Review
- Combined Use of Presepsin and (1,3)-β-D-glucan as Biomarkers for DiagnosingJournal of fungi (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Article
- A Rare Case of Aspergillus Mediastinitis After Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery: A Case Report and Literature Review.The American journal of case reports · 2021Review
- Early Low Level of Procalcitonin Is Associated with a Favorable Outcome in a Case of a Surviving Patient with 80% Body Surface Area Thermal Burn.The American journal of case reports · 2021Article
- Delta-Procalcitonin and Vitamin D Can Predict Mortality of Internal Medicine Patients with Microbiological Identified Sepsis.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2021Article
- Host Diagnostic Biomarkers of Infection in the ICU: Where Are We and Where Are We Going?Current infectious disease reports · 2021Review
- C-reactive protein concentration as a risk predictor of mortality in intensive care unit: a multicenter, prospective, observational study.BMC anesthesiology · 2020Observational
Corrections and comments
- Commented on by
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- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
7 authors at 4 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundProcalcitonin (PCT) is a biomarker used to assess systemic inflammation, infection, and sepsis and to optimize antimicrobial therapies. Its role in the in the differential diagnosis between candidemia and bacteremia is unclear. The aim of this systematic review was to summarize the current evidence about PCT values for differentiating candidemia from bacteremia.
methodsPubMed and EMBASE were searched for studies reporting data on the diagnostic performance of serum PCT levels in intensive care unit (ICU) or non-ICU adult patients with candidemia, in comparison to patients with bacteremia.
resultsWe included 16 studies for a total of 45.079 patients and 785 cases of candidemia. Most studies claimed to report data relating to the use of PCT values for differentiating between candidemia and bacteremia in septic patients in the intensive care unit. However, the studies identified were all retrospective, except for one secondary analysis of a prospective dataset, and clinically very heterogeneous and involved different assessment methods. Most studies did show lower PCT values in patients with candidemia compared to bacteremia. However, the evidence supporting this observation is of low quality and the difference seems insufficiently discriminative to guide therapeutic decisions. None of the studies retrieved actually studied guidance of antifungal treatment by PCT. PCT may improve diagnostic performance regarding candidemia when combined with other biomarkers of infection (e.g., beta-D-glucan) but more data is needed.
conclusionsPCT should not be used as a standalone tool for the differential diagnosis between candidemia and bacteremia due to limited supporting evidence.
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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.