ArticleBMC pediatrics2022
Cost-effectiveness of procalcitonin for detection of serious bacterial infections in children presenting with fever without source.
Article in BMC pediatrics, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed, 9 citations in OpenAlex.
- Cost-effectiveness of ceftolozane/tazobactam compared to meropenem in ventilator-associated pneumonia.Cost effectiveness and resource allocation : C/E · 2025Article
- The impact of procalcitonin-guided antibiotic treatment on treatment duration and hospital costs in children-balancing benefits and burdens.Translational pediatrics · 2025Article
- Calprotectin as a Biomarker for Infectious Diseases: A Comparative Review with Conventional Inflammatory Markers.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
- Intensive care infection score: ICIS discriminates between infected and uninfected critically ill patients in routine intensive care unit practice.Intensive care medicine experimental · 2025Article
- Prognostic Value of Serum Procalcitonin Based Model in Moderate to Severe Traumatic Brain Injury Patients.Journal of inflammation research · 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
2 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionProcalcitonin (PCT) offers better specificity than C-reactive protein (CRP) to detect SBI. However, their cost limited their use and routine application. The objective of this work is to determine the cost-effectiveness of PCT against CPR or Rochester scale in infants between 1 and 3 months from the perspective of the third payer in Colombia.
methodsA Monte Carlo simulation was performed with a hypothetical cohort of 10,000 patients with fever without focus (FWS) between 1 to 3 months, to estimate the number of cases correctly diagnosed for each test and the associated costs with each test.
resultsThe test with the highest number of correctly diagnosed cases was PCT 79%, followed by C-reactive protein 75%, and the Rochester scale 68%. The test with the lowest cost per patient was PCT $645 (95% CI US$646-US$645) followed by C-reactive protein U$ 653 (95% CI US$655-$645) and Rochester scale US$804 (95% CI US$807-US$804). This position of dominance of PCT eliminated the need to calculate an incremental cost effectiveness ratio.
conclusionsPCT is the most cost-effective strategy for the detection of IBS in infants with FWS. These results should be interpreted within the clinical context of the patient and not as a single method for therapeutic decision-making.
Indexed as
Identifiers
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.