Procalcitonin in clinical practice: from diagnosis of sepsis to antibiotic therapy

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.
Authors
A diagnostic algorithm that allows for the rapid identification of sepsis and possibly guides the appropriate antimicrobial therapy application is the cornerstone to obtaining effective treatment and better results. The use of emerging surrogate markers could significantly improve clinical practice, but the validity and clinical utility have been proved only for very few of them, and their availability in clinical routine is limited. For this purpose, numerous scientific evidence has indicated procalcitonin as a marker linked to sepsis and its evolution. This review aims to retrace the main evidence relating to the use of procalcitonin in sepsis. We analyzed the primary studies in the literature and the existing meta-analysis evaluating the behavior of procalcitonin as a marker of bacterial sepsis, its prognostic power, and its ability to influence antibiotic therapy. Recent evidence has suggested that procalcitonin could be an efficient marker for diagnosing sepsis and its therapeutic management in many types of patients. The choice of the appropriate timing to initiate and suspend antibiotic therapy, with obvious clinical advantages, the favorable effects could also include reducing health costs, both avoiding the administration of inappropriate antibiotic therapies, and reducing the duration of hospitalization. Moreover, limited studies reported high procalcitonin levels in coronavirus disease 2019 patients with a worse prognosis. Despite the considerable evidence in favor of the potential of procalcitonin as an index for managing septic patients, there are conflicting data that deserve specific and detailed studies.
How to Cite
PAGEPress has chosen to apply the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0) to all manuscripts to be published.
Similar Articles
- Riccardo Gerloni, Luciano Mucci, Carlotta Casati, Andrea Crociani, Ombretta Para, Elisabetta Benetti, Paola Gnerre, Anna Bovero, Elisa Romagnoli, Nicola Tarquinio, Clelia Canale, Davide Brancato, Laura Massarelli, Salvatora Piras, Management of sepsis: from evidence to clinical practice , Italian Journal of Medicine: Vol. 10 No. 4 (2016)
- Massimo Giusti, Elena Cerutti, Antibiotic stewardship programs and the internist's role , Italian Journal of Medicine: Vol. 10 No. 4 (2016)
- Silvia Spoto, Emanuele Valeriani, Sebastiano Costantino, Nosography of systemic inflammatory response syndrome, sepsis, severe sepsis, septic shock, and multiple organ dysfunction syndrome in internal medicine patients , Italian Journal of Medicine: Vol. 9 No. 3 (2015)
- Giuseppe Chesi, Natale Vazzana, Claudio Giumelli, Biomarkers for sepsis: past, present and future , Italian Journal of Medicine: Vol. 10 No. 4 (2016)
- Dario Martolini, Maurizia Galiè, Anna Maria Santoro, Danilo Monno, Claudio Santini, David Terracina, on behalf of FADOI Lazio - Area of Infectious Diseases, Antibiotic use in Departments of Internal Medicine of Lazio , Italian Journal of Medicine: Vol. 11 No. 4 (2017)
- Manuel Tufoni, Alessandra Tovoli, Caterina Maggioli, Lucia Napoli, Carmen Serena Ricci, Marianna Mastroroberto, Giacomo Zaccherini, Paolo Caraceni, A case of pneumonia and sepsis in cirrhosis as paradigm of the problems in the management of bacterial infections in cirrhosis and of the limitations of current knowledge , Italian Journal of Medicine: Vol. 7 No. 3 (2013)
- Giovanni Pedretti, Pasquale Gianluca Giuri, Giuseppe Chesi, Giuseppe Civardi, Giovanni Dall'Asta, Matteo Giorgi Pierfranceschi, Giorgio Cioni, for the Steering Committee FADOI Emilia Romagna, Prescription appropriateness of empiric antibiotic therapy: survey in the internal medicine departments of the Emilia Romagna region , Italian Journal of Medicine: Vol. 8 No. 2 (2014)
- Giuseppe Chesi, Natale Vazzana, Filippo Dall'Orto, Procalcitonin: handle with care , Italian Journal of Medicine: Vol. 10 No. 3 (2016)
- Marianna Gregorio, Antonio Villa, The relevance of a fast and early diagnosis of necrotizing fasciitis in the Emergency Department: a case report , Italian Journal of Medicine: Vol. 10 No. 3 (2016)
- Pietro Bocchi, Lara Zerbini, Elisa Gnappi, Maurizio Ziliotti, Marco Pesci, Luisa Craviotto, Michele Meschi, A misleading miscellanea: a COVID-19 patient with fever and cytopenia , Italian Journal of Medicine: Vol. 18 No. 4 (2024)
You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.