ReviewAnnals of translational medicine2020
A 2020 review on the role of procalcitonin in different clinical settings: an update conducted with the tools of the Evidence Based Laboratory Medicine.
Review in Annals of translational medicine, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 33 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
33 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 70 citations in OpenAlex.
- Non-Infectious Causes for Elevated Procalcitonin.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2026Pooled it
- Procalcitonin and Interleukin-10 May Assist in Early Prediction of Bacteraemia in Children With Cancer and Febrile Neutropenia.Frontiers in immunology · 2021Trial
- Review
- Respiratory Biomarkers: An Opportunity for Patient-Centric Microsampling Approach for Treatment Optimization.Clinical and translational science · 2026Review
- Article
- Lactate Dehydrogenase to Albumin Ratio as a Predictor of Severe Community-Acquired Pneumonia in Patients Aged 60 years and Above: A Retrospective Cohort Study.Infection and drug resistance · 2026Article
- Machine learning-based identification of inflammatory biomarkers for predicting pulmonary consolidation in children with Chlamydia pneumoniae infection.Frontiers in pediatrics · 2026Article
- Diagnostic Accuracy of Procalcitonin in the Diagnosis of Sepsis in Cancer Patients Hospitalized for Infection.Cancer reports (Hoboken, N.J.) · 2025Observational
- Evaluation of the Diagnostic and Predictive Significance of Postoperative C-Reactive Protein to Transferrin or Albumin Ratio in Identifying Septic Events Following Major Abdominal Surgery.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Article
- Circulating Biomarkers of Thyroid Cancer: An Appraisal.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Review
- Navigating Hemorrhagic Shock: Biomarkers, Therapies, and Challenges in Clinical Care.Biomedicines · 2024Review
- Review
- Evaluation of Serial Procalcitonin Levels for the Optimization of Antibiotic Use in Non-Critically Ill COVID-19 Patients.Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Exploring the Impact of Model-Informed Precision Dosing on Procalcitonin Concentrations in Critically Ill Patients: A Secondary Analysis of the DOLPHIN Trial.Pharmaceutics · 2024Article
- Bacterial infections and fever after hepatocellular carcinoma ablation therapy: Predictive role of procalcitonin.Clinical and experimental hepatology · 2023Article
- Time-Updated Phenotypic Guidance of Corticosteroids and Antibiotics in COPD: Rationale, Perspective and a Proposed Method.Biomedicines · 2023Review
- Changes of C-reactive protein and Procalcitonin after four weeks of treatment in patients with pulmonary TB.Journal of clinical tuberculosis and other mycobacterial diseases · 2023Article
- Biomarkers as Prognostic Predictors and Therapeutic Guide in Critically Ill Patients: Clinical Evidence.Journal of personalized medicine · 2023Review
- The Role of CRP POC Testing in the Fight against Antibiotic Overuse in European Primary Care: Recommendations from a European Expert Panel.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Procalcitonin for antimicrobial stewardship among cancer patients admitted with COVID-19.eLife · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Biomarkers to guide antibiotic treatment decisions have been proposed as an effective way to enhancing a more appropriate use of antibiotics. As a biomarker, procalcitonin (PCT) has been found to have good specificity to distinguish bacterial from non-bacterial inflammations. Decisions regarding antibiotic use in an individual patient are complex and should be based on the pre-test probability for bacterial infection, the severity of presentation and the results of PCT serum concentration. In the context of a high pre-test probability for bacterial infections and/or a high-risk patient with sepsis, monitoring of PCT over time helps to track the resolution of infection and decisions regarding early stop of antibiotic treatment. As outlined by the Evidence Based Laboratory Medicine (EBLM), not only the pre-test probability but also the positive likelihood ratio influence the performance of a test do be really diagnostic. This aspect should be taken into account in the interpretation of the results of clinical trials evaluating the performance of PCT in guiding antibiotic therapy.
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What OpenQuestion holds
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.