ArticleDiagnostic microbiology and infectious disease2022
Elucidating the role of procalcitonin as a biomarker in hospitalized COVID-19 patients.
Article in Diagnostic microbiology and infectious disease, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed, 10 citations in OpenAlex.
- Efficacy of a Multistrain Synbiotic Treatment in Acute and Post-Acute COVID-19 Patients: A Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Randomized Trial.Microorganisms · 2024Article
- Generalizing the Use of a Procalcitonin-Guided Antibiotic Algorithm to a New Era of SARS-CoV-2 Infection.Chest · 2024Article
- Are C-reactive protein and procalcitonin safe and useful for antimicrobial stewardship purposes in patients with COVID-19? A scoping review.Antimicrobial stewardship & healthcare epidemiology : ASHE · 2024Article
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Authors and funding
15 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Our objectives were to evaluate the role of procalcitonin in identifying bacterial co-infections in hospitalized COVID-19 patients and quantify antibiotic prescribing during the 2020 pandemic surge. Hospitalized COVID-19 patients with both a procalcitonin test and blood or respiratory culture sent on admission were included in this retrospective study. Confirmed co-infection was determined by an infectious diseases specialist. In total, 819 patients were included; 335 (41%) had an elevated procalcitonin (>0.5 ng/mL) and of these, 42 (13%) had an initial bacterial co-infection. Positive predictive value of elevated procalcitonin for co-infection was 13% while the negative predictive value was 94%. Ninety-six percent of patients with an elevated procalcitonin received antibiotics (median 6 days of therapy), compared to 82% with low procalcitonin (median 4 days of therapy) (adjusted OR:3.3, P < 0.001). We observed elevated initial procalcitonin in many COVID patients without concurrent bacterial co-infections which potentially contributed to antibiotic over-prescribing.
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