Annals of the rheumatic diseases
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To study the levels of procalcitonin (PCT) in various inflammatory states seen in an internal medicine department and to evaluate the possible discriminative role of PCT in differentiating bacterial infection from other inflammatory processes. ⋯ PCT levels only rose significantly during bacterial infections. In this study PCT levels >1.2 ng/ml were always evidence of bacterial infection and the cue for starting antibiotic treatment.