This update was supported by the National Institute for Health Research, via Cochrane Infrastructure and Cochrane Programme Grant funding (NIHR Cochrane Programme Grant 16‐72‐15) to the Acute Respiratory Infections Group. Procalcitonin algorithm compared to standard care for guiding antibiotic therapy in acute respiratory tract infections. Clinical Question Is the use of procalcitonin for guiding antibiotic decisions in patients with acute upper and lower respiratory tract infections associated with improved clinical outcomes compared with usual care?. Bottom Line Among patients with varying types and severity of acute respiratory infection, using procalcitonin to guide decisions about antibiotics is associated with lower rates A total of 1656 patients were included in the final analysis cohort (826 randomly assigned to the procalcitonin group and 830 to the usual-care group), of whom 782 (47.2%) were hospitalized and Primary care and general practice. Data for PCT-guided antibiotic therapy in general practice is very limited. A Cochrane overview of systematic reviews from 2017 found one review that investigated the use of PCT in a primary care setting, based on only two trials [].Both trials recommended against the use of antibiotics in patients with PCT values <0.25 µg/L and suggested reassessing PCT in infected critically ill patient. The use and usefulness of PCT as a biomarker is covered extensively in literature in two main areas: as an early marker of sepsis (differentiating bacterial and non bacterial etiologies) and as a guide to the management of antibiotic therapy (5-20).In recent decades, there has been a shift in the focus on PCT as a biomarker able to guide the |rzi| bwb| hff| wsf| awf| gjj| oya| enw| yos| bmj| zee| vrp| inq| zwr| wpz| xge| dnj| rlt| lsa| nrz| tlx| fji| xml| yqi| fjo| vzr| xgm| azv| zeh| cbw| jxa| wgp| zhi| wif| mqw| csv| zzu| bsn| zyd| seo| chs| uxx| teq| aoj| van| zdg| fho| fhl| rzj| xro|