Procalcitonin levels as a predictor of antibiotic treatment in pediatric diabetic ketoacidosis.

Katie D Dolak, Samuel Davila, Perrin C White

Abstract read

In one paragraph

Article in BMC pediatrics, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

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1 · What the graph read from it

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5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors.

Katie D DolakDepartment of Pediatrics, Division of Pediatric Endocrinology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA. katie.dolak@utsouthwestern.edu.

Samuel DavilaDepartment of Pediatrics, Division of Pediatric Infectious Disease and Division Pediatric Critical Care, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA.

Perrin C WhiteDepartment of Pediatrics, Division of Pediatric Endocrinology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundProcalcitonin is a useful screen for bacterial infection, but its utility in pediatric diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) is unknown.

methodsWe conducted a retrospective study of DKA patients admitted to two pediatric hospitals in 2019-2023.

results116 admissions had available procalcitonin levels, of which in 32, patients were prescribed a complete antibiotics course and thus presumed to have a bacterial infection. More of the treated group were female (69% vs. 45%, p = 0.036), febrile (47% vs. 22%, p = 0.013), and/or had pneumonia on chest x-ray (30.8% vs. 4.76%, p = 0.023). Area under (AUC) a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve for procalcitonin to predict clinically suspected infection was 0.51 (no predictive value), whereas a ROC curve using fever and C-reactive protein (CRP) as predictors had an AUC of 0.79. Including procalcitonin in this model did not improve AUC.

conclusionsCRP and fever are useful predictors for clinically suspected infection in DKA patients, but procalcitonin is not.

Indexed as

Anti-Bacterial AgentsBacterial InfectionsDiabetic KetoacidosisProcalcitoninAdolescentBiomarkersChildChild, PreschoolC-Reactive ProteinFemaleFeverHumansMalePredictive Value of TestsRetrospective StudiesROC CurveAnti-Bacterial AgentsBiomarkersC-Reactive ProteinProcalcitoninDiabetic ketoacidosisInflammatory markersPediatricProcalcitoninType 1 diabetesType 2 diabetes

Identifiers

PMID42304342

DOI10.1186/s12887-026-07114-9

PMCPMC13520395

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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.