ArticleAnnals of intensive care2021
Ability of procalcitonin to distinguish between bacterial and nonbacterial infection in severe acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary syndrome in the ICU.
Article in Annals of intensive care, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed, 13 citations in OpenAlex.
- Delta Neutrophil Index and Other Hematologic Parameters in Acute Exacerbations of COPD: A Retrospective Study.Canadian respiratory journal · 2025Article
- Clinical application of Myxovirus resistance protein A as a diagnostic biomarker to differentiate viral and bacterial respiratory infections in pediatric patients.Frontiers in immunology · 2025Article
- Biomarkers (NLR, PLR, SII) for Frequent COPD Exacerbations: Diagnostic and Clinical Management Implications in a Retrospective Study.International journal of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease · 2025Observational
- Recent updates of interferon-derived myxovirus resistance protein A as a biomarker for acute viral infection.European journal of medical research · 2024Review
- Article
- Reduced Reliability of Procalcitonin (PCT) as a Biomarker of Bacterial Superinfection: Concerns about PCT-Driven Antibiotic Stewardship in Critically Ill COVID-19 Patients-Results from a Retrospective Observational Study in Intensive Care Units.Journal of clinical medicine · 2023Article
- Early antibiotic therapy is associated with a lower probability of successful liberation from mechanical ventilation in patients with severe acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.Annals of intensive care · 2022Article
- IL-6 and IL-10 Are Associated With Gram-Negative and Gram-Positive Bacteria Infection in Lymphoma.Frontiers in immunology · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
14 authors at 8 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundTo assess the ability of procalcitonin (PCT) to distinguish between bacterial and nonbacterial causes of patients with severe acute exacerbation of COPD (AECOPD) admitted to the ICU, we conducted a retrospective analysis of two prospective studies including 375 patients with severe AECOPD with suspected lower respiratory tract infections. PCT levels were sequentially assessed at the time of inclusion, 6 h after and at day 1, using a sensitive immunoassay. The patients were classified according to the presence of a documented bacterial infection (including bacterial and viral coinfection) (BAC + group), or the absence of a documented bacterial infection (i.e., a documented viral infection alone or absence of a documented pathogen) (BAC- group). The accuracy of PCT levels in predicting bacterial infection (BAC + group) vs no bacterial infection (BAC- group) at different time points was evaluated by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis.
resultsRegarding the entire cohort (n = 375), at any time, the PCT levels significantly differed between groups (Kruskal-Wallis test, p < 0.001). A pairwise comparison showed that PCT levels were significantly higher in patients with bacterial infection (n = 94) than in patients without documented pathogens (n = 218) (p < 0.001). No significant difference was observed between patients with bacterial and viral infection (n = 63). For example, the median PCT-H
conclusionDespite higher PCT levels in severe AECOPD caused by bacterial infection, PCT had a poor accuracy to distinguish between bacterial and nonbacterial infection. Procalcitonin might not be sufficient as a standalone marker for initiating antibiotic treatment in this setting.
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