-
J. Clin. Microbiol. · Jul 2010
ReviewUse of plasma procalcitonin levels as an adjunct to clinical microbiology.
- David N Gilbert.
- Department of Medical Education, Providence Portland Medical Center, Portland, OR 97213, USA. david.gilbert@providence.org
- J. Clin. Microbiol. 2010 Jul 1;48(7):2325-9.
AbstractProcalcitonin (PCT) is synthesized by a large number of tissues and organs in response to invasion by pathogenic bacteria, fungi, and some parasites. Current PCT assays are rapid, specific, and of sufficient sensitivity to detect increases in PCT serum levels within 4 to 6 h of initiation of infection. Clinically, PCT levels may help in decisions regarding the need for empirical antibiotic therapy, "source control" of infection, and duration of antibiotic therapy. The addition of PCT levels to bacterial culture and viral detection results can assist with the separation of colonization and invasion by pathogenic bacteria.
Notes
Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
- Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as
*italics*,_underline_or**bold**. - Superscript can be denoted by
<sup>text</sup>and subscript<sub>text</sub>. - Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines
1. 2. 3., hyphens-or asterisks*. - Links can be included with:
[my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com) - Images can be included with:
 - For footnotes use
[^1](This is a footnote.)inline. - Or use an inline reference
[^1]to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document[^1]: This is a long footnote..