ReviewBMJ global health2020
The good and the bad: using C reactive protein to distinguish bacterial from non-bacterial infection among febrile patients in low-resource settings.
Review in BMJ global health, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT07261969 (CRP and Patient Information Leaflets to Optimise Antibiotic Treatments for Adults With Respiratory Tract Infections in Primary Care in Kyrgyzstan), which is not on this map. Cited by 58 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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.
CRP and Patient Information Leaflets to Optimise Antibiotic Treatments for Adults With Respiratory Tract Infections in Primary Care in Kyrgyzstan
Who cites it
58 citing papers in PubMed, 90 citations in OpenAlex.
- Trial
- Trial
- Nebulised interferon beta-1a (SNG001) in the treatment of viral exacerbations of COPD.Respiratory research · 2024Trial
- Tocilizumab in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 (RECOVERY): a randomised, controlled, open-label, platform trial.Lancet (London, England) · 2021Trial
- Article
- Hepcidin in hospitalized older medical patients: associations with inflammation, anemia, frailty, comorbidity, and renal function.BMC geriatrics · 2026Article
- Challenges in early detection and prognostication of sepsis: new approaches from the emergency department and intensive care unit.EClinicalMedicine · 2026Review
- Article
- Association of CRP levels and clinical and radiological outcomes in patients with large-vessel occlusion stroke: A MR CLEAN Registry study.European stroke journal · 2026Article
- Evaluating the diagnostic and prognostic utility of serum DLL1 in acute-on-chronic liver failure patients with bacterial infections.Frontiers in medicine · 2026Article
- Proximity extension assay-based targeted proteomics for biomarker discovery in adult bacterial infections.Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2026Review
- Performance of procalcitonin point-of-care tests in predicting bacterial causes of acute febrile illness in Northwest Ethiopia.BMC infectious diseases · 2025Article
- Association of CRP levels and clinical and radiological outcomes in patients with large-vessel occlusion stroke: A MR CLEAN Registry study.European stroke journal · 2025Article
- De Novo Missense Variant c.170 C > A of ELANE in a Chinese Infant with Congenital Neutropenia: Case Report and Literature Review.Journal of clinical immunology · 2025Review
- Aetiologies, neuroradiological features, and risk factors for mortality and long-term neurosequelae of febrile coma in Malawian children: a prospective cohort study.The Lancet. Global health · 2025Article
- Incidence and Risk Factors of Secondary Infections in Critically Ill SARS-CoV-2 Patients: A Retrospective Study in an Intensive Care Unit.Biomedicines · 2025Article
- Article
- Theoretical impact of a bedside decision-making tool on antibiotic use for suspected neonatal healthcare-associated infection: an observational study.BMC pediatrics · 2025Observational
- Comparative Efficacy of Ultrasound and Laser Therapy in Modulating Inflammatory Markers in a Rat Model of Testicular Inflammation.Journal of lasers in medical sciences · 2025Article
- Serial C-Reactive Protein Point-of-Care testing to optimize antibiotic treatment in hospitalized children with signs of infection in Zanzibar: A feasibility study.PLOS global public health · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
C reactive protein (CRP), a marker for the presence of an inflammatory process, is the most extensively studied marker for distinguishing bacterial from non-bacterial infections in febrile patients. A point-of-care test for bacterial infections would be of particular use in low-resource settings where other laboratory diagnostics are not always available, antimicrobial resistance rates are high and bacterial infections such as pneumonia are a leading cause of death. This document summarises evidence on CRP testing for bacterial infections in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs). With a push for universal health coverage and prevention of antimicrobial resistance, it is important to understand if CRP might be able to do the job. The use of CRP polarised the global health community and the aim of this document is to summarise the 'good and the bad' of CRP in multiple settings in LMICs. In brief, the literature that was reviewed suggests that CRP testing may be beneficial in low-resource settings to improve rational antibiotic use for febrile patients, but the positive predictive value is insufficient to allow it to be used alone as a single tool. CRP testing may be best used as part of a panel of diagnostic tests and algorithms. Further studies in low-resource settings, particularly with regard to impact on antibiotic prescribing and cost-effectiveness of CRP testing, are warranted.
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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.