• Pedro Falcão Gonçalves, Luiz Menezes Falcão, and Isabel Duque Pinheiro.
• 1University Hospital Santa Maria, Centro Hospitalar Lisboa Norte, Lisboa, Portugal and 2University of Lisbon, Faculty of Medicine, Lisbon, Portugal.
• Am J Ther. 2017 May 1; 24 (3): e243-e249.

AbstractProcalcitonin (PCT) is a quickly measurable marker, assumed to have high sensitivity and specificity for sepsis and infection. A literature search was conducted to evaluate PCT ability as a diagnostic and prognostic tool in infectious processes and its ability to monitor the antibiotic therapy. PCT level is increased in bacterial and fungal infections, but not in viral infections, with a significantly higher level in patients with bacteremia compared with uninfected patients (2.5 vs. 0.3 ng/mL; P < 0.0001). A PCT value of ≤0.1 ng/mL discards bacteremia and microbiological tests (negative predictive value of 96.3%), >0.1 ng/mL needs microbiological tests, and >1.0 ng/mL is indicative of bacteremia. Antibiotic treatment algorithms guided by PCT decreased the need for antibiotic treatment in approximately 50%. PCT is a promising test in clinical practice to decide the introduction of antibiotic therapy in addition to the existing tools, without neglecting the clinical assessment, with a significant decrease in costs.

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